Between Two Points
by SistaSouljah
Summary: COMPLETE! NSOC triangle (sort of, but not really). Nick and Sara are co-workers and friends. Could they be anything more? Should they?
1. Catherine, Jr

Between Two Points

Disclaimer: If it's familiar to you, it doesn't belong to me

A/N: This isn't a WIP, I've actually written the whole thing already.  I'll post a new chapter every so often, as long as people like it.  This is my rookie fic, so please tell me what you think.  Enjoy!

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Chapter 1 – Catherine, Jr.

The break room at CSI.  Catherine and Warrick sat on one side of the table, Nick and Sara opposite to them.  Kate, Catherine's niece, sat next to Sara.  Kate had just graduated from college and moved to Las Vegas from the east coast so she could work with her aunt.  They were making small talk over coffee, getting to know Kate, who was going to be interning at CSI.

Warrick was flipping through the sports page, Sara was reading a forensic journal, and Nick was peeling an orange.  He silently offered Sara a half; she accepted it without looking up from the article she was reading.  With her nose still in the journal, Sara said to no one in particular, "Did you know that blood evidence in 32% of murder trials . . ."

"So Kate," Warrick interjected, trying to change the subject before Sara went into one of her ramblings, "you wanna be a CSI just like your aunt?"

"Yep.  It must be destiny or something," Kate said.  "I was even named after her.  Katherine with a 'K' though."

"Don't tell me you were also once an exotic dancer," Warrick teased.

"Warrick!" Catherine gave him a shocked look as she playfully slapped him on the arm.

"What, you don't think I could have been one?" Kate teased back.

"Kate!" Catherine looked at her niece, even more shocked.

"What?" Kate smiled innocently at her aunt.

Nick was trying to look busy by picking out the seeds in his orange slice, pretending not to be amused by the conversation.  "Well," he said as if to himself, "it's not like it's implausible…"

"Nick!"  Catherine turned to give the other male CSI a look.  She was across the table from him and couldn't reach his arm.  "Sara," she ordered.  Sara, still engrossed in her journal, punched Nick in the arm without looking up or losing her spot on the page.

"Don't encourage these guys," Catherine said to her niece.

Nick got up to throw his orange peels in the garbage can.  "You're worried about me and Warrick?" he said to Catherine.  "We're the least of your problems.  Greg works here, remember?"

"Oh, right," Catherine remembered, a little dismayed.

"Who's Greg?" Kate asked.

Warrick laughed, "Oh, you'll know when you meet him."

"So seriously," Nick said, changing the subject as he sat back down.  "You really wanna be a CSI?"

"Definitely," Kate said.  "And I owe it all to Aunt Catherine."

"So when do you start the academy?" Sara asked, finally looking up from the journal.

"Next fall.  I just got my bachelor's in Criminal Justice this past winter.  I graduated a semester early, but they wouldn't let me in the academy for this spring because my final transcripts wouldn't have been ready in time."

"Bummer," Sara said.

"Yeah, but that's okay," Kate said cheerfully.  "If I didn't have these six extra months, I wouldn't be able to work here with my favorite aunt!"

"Hey, don't try to be kissing up now," Nick teased.  He turned to the rest of his co-workers.  "As an intern, isn't she in charge of making coffee and going on food runs?"

"That's just what you'd want, huh Nick? A personal slave?" Sara joked.

"Excuse me, but I refuse to be anybody's personal slave here," Kate said, playing along with their joke.  After a short beat, she added, "Well, except maybe Warrick's . . ." she teased Warrick with a flirty look.

Warrick raised his fist in triumph.  "That's my girl!"  He pointed at Nick, as if to say, _Ha!  I won!_ and Nick smirked back at him, defeated.

Sara rolled her eyes, getting tired of listening to the guys being guys.  "Where is Grissom?" she said impatiently.  "He's three minutes late."

"Sorry, that would be my fault," Kate apologized.  "When I went in to talk to him earlier he said that my paperwork had arrived late so he had to finish it up before I could start."

"First shift didn't even start and you're already causing problems, huh Junior?" Nick scolded sarcastically.

Kate gave him a puzzled look.  "Junior?"

"Yeah, as in Catherine, Junior.  You said you wanted to be just like you're aunt.  You have the same name and everything.  And it's not like you denied the stripper thing," Nick teased.

Kate smiled.  She knew her internship was going to be a blast.  She would be working with her favorite aunt, not to mention two flirty, incredibly hot co-workers.  She wondered how Sara, or her aunt for that matter, were able to focus on their jobs.  Before any more inappropriate thoughts could pop into Kate's head, Grissom burst into the room, obviously in a hurry.

"Sorry I'm late," he apologized to everyone.  "Paperwork."  He turned to Kate.  "Ready for your first case?"

"Bring it on," Kate replied eagerly.

"Okay, well you're in luck.  Got a big one, I want all of us on it.  406 in Summerlin.

"Why do you need all of us on one burglary?" Sara asked, a little annoyed.

"Summerlin." Catherine answered, as if the reason was obvious.  Burglaries in the upscale neighborhoods were always more complicated.  More things to steal, more important people to steal from.

"Exactly."  Grissom said.  "Dinner party, lots of big wigs, friends of the sheriff's, you get the picture."

Sara still wasn't satisfied.  "Yeah, but just because –" she started to argue.

"Oh, I forgot to mention," Grissom interrupted as he turned to leave.  "One DB.  Which was apparently not the burglar."  He left for the parking lot, leaving Sara frustrated and the rest of the team a little confused as to what exactly just happened.

Warrick was the first to move.  "Well, let's roll," he said, as he got up from his seat and headed for the door.  "I'm driving."

"No, I'm driving," Nick countered, as he got up and followed Warrick.

"Says who?  I called it," Warrick answered back.

"I says.  Your Denali smells like fish," Nick replied.

"It does not," Warrick argued.  It's my new air freshener.  And it's not fish, it's 'Outdoor Pine.'"

"Yeah, 'Outdoor Pine' with a side of fish," Nick continued.  "Forget it, man.  I don't wanna smell that."  

They continued arguing as they started down the hall.  Catherine and Sara rolled their eyes.  Kate smiled.  "Hey guys," Catherine called to them as the ladies followed them down the hall.  "Why don't you both drive?  We can't all fit in one car!" she yelled to them, but they apparently didn't hear.

"Are they always –" Kate started to ask.

"Get used to it," Sara said.

The team pulled up to the extravagant Summerlin estate.  Warrick exited the driver's side of one vehicle, Nick from the other.  The rest of the CSI's piled out.  They all silently made their way under the yellow tape, into the house, and up the stairs to the master bedroom, the primary crime scene.

"Whoa," Kate said as they all entered the bedroom, shocked by the lavishness.  "This is three times as big as my entire apartment."

"Hell, that _closet_ is three times as big as my apartment," Warrick replied, gesturing toward the huge walk-in.

Grissom ignored their comments and got right down to business.  "Cath, Nick, Sara, Kate, process the room.  Warrick and I'll take the body on the balcony."  Grissom headed toward the sliding glass doors that led to the balcony, with Warrick on his heels.

Catherine turned to the rest of the team.  "Well, let's do it.  Divide and conquer?" she proposed.

"I'll take photo duty," Sara offered.

"I'll start with the bed," Nick said.

"You would," Sara quickly retorted.  Nick gave her a look; Sara gave him one of her looks back.

"Okay, well I'll tackle that closet," Catherine said.

"What should I do?"  Kate asked, a little overwhelmed.

"Uh, why don't you start dusting?  Champagne bottles and glasses are everywhere," Catherine suggested.

"Okay."

The team went to work.  Kate looked around the room and decided to start with some champagne bottles and an ice bucket on a nightstand near the bed.  She opened up a jar of fingerprint powder and soon became engrossed in her dusting, so engrossed that she didn't even notice Nick had made his way from the other side of the bed and was examining something on the wall near Kate with his flashlight.  He bent down to get a closer look.  "Hey Kate," he called to her, since she was the closest one.  "Take a look at this, tell me what you think."

Kate, a little startled, quickly turned to see where the voice was coming from.  She was on her knees dusting a champagne glass on the nightstand, and when she turned, her face ended up at eye level with Nick's rear end.  "Everything looks great from here," she smiled.

Sara, who was further away but within hearing distance, tried to stifle a half laugh, half scoff.

Confused, Nick turned his head to see if they were looking at the same thing, and quickly stood up when he realized they weren't.  He smiled, embarrassed.  "Um, it looks like grease or something," he managed to mutter.

"I think it's petroleum jelly," Catherine said, coming towards them from the closet.  "I found some on the closet door handle too.  Take a swab.  Maybe we'll get lucky and get some epithelials.  I mean, someone had to have put it there, right?"

"Yeah, but why is it all over the walls?"  Nick asked, confused.  "I followed this trail from the other side of the bed over there."

"Oh, c'mon, Nick.  Lubricant?  Bedroom?  I'm sure that's nothing new to you," Kate teased.

Nick smiled and tried to think of a comeback, but couldn't.  He went to grab some swabs from his kit.

"What are you doing?" Catherine whispered to her niece, referring to Kate's flirty comment.

"Dusting for prints," Kate replied.

"You know what I mean," Catherine said.  Kate gave her an innocent smile.  "Rule number one," her aunt continued.  "No flirting on the job."  Catherine left to finish up her work in the closet.

"Sorry," Kate said as she smiled to herself.  She couldn't help herself.

After Nick collected the samples from the wall, he started to inspect the bed sheets, but his mind was elsewhere.  Was Kate actually flirting with him?  Or was she just joking around, like she had in the break room?  And this was on the job, which Nick thought was a little bold.  Not that he didn't enjoy it.  Kate seemed like a nice girl.  Smart.  Easygoing.  Not to mention pretty cute.  Even though he was partial to redheads, no guy would walk away from long, flowing blonde hair.  And she certainly knew how to let loose.  Unlike Sara, who took her job way too seriously and never knew how to relax.  Nick stopped himself.  _What am I doing?_  He thought to himself.  _I'm working!  And it's Catherine's niece!_  He tried to get Kate out of his head and started focusing on the bed sheets.

Sara, meanwhile, was forming a completely different opinion of Kate.  She pretended not to care one way or the other about Kate's blatant flirting, but she frankly thought it was unprofessional and totally inappropriate.  She hoped that Catherine told her niece that crime scenes were not places to fool around and have fun at.  The last thing they needed was for some intern fresh out of college to make a careless mistake and ruin their whole case.

Still, Kate was Catherine's niece, and out of respect for Catherine as a co-worker and a friend, Sara decided to try and keep an open mind about Kate.  At least for now.  She figured that Kate's flirty personality was probably due to nervousness on her first day, and also immaturity.  Besides, she thought, Greg was the same way whenever he talked to her.  And she didn't dislike Greg for it.  She hated to admit that she even liked it.  What girl wouldn't?  Greg was harmless anyway, and Sara knew he was too timid to ever take action.  She figured that Kate was probably the same way.  Although, Sara reasoned, Kate was Catherine's blood relative, who was once an exotic dancer…

But whatever.  Why should Sara care if Kate hit on Nick?

~*~*~*~

Good?  Bad?  Let me know!

Oh, and about the whole intern thing, I'm pretty sure they don't just let people off the street come in and work as a CSI without training.  But whatever.  That's why it's called fiction.  =P


	2. The Human Vacuum

A/N:  Thanks so much for your reviews.  They really really mean a lot!  Oh and thanks to those who reviewed my "Somebody Else" ficlet.  I'm so glad people liked it.  Because I had so much fun writing it.  And I thought it was pretty good myself! =)  If you haven't read it yet, go read it now!  Or after you read this new chapter.  Anyway, read on and hope you enjoy!

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Chapter 2 – The Human Vacuum

Back at the lab, Catherine was showing Kate how to scan the fingerprints into the computer.

"…so after you scan it in, hit search, and then all you have to do is wait," Catherine explained.  Go get some coffee or something.  It might take awhile.  Doc Robbins is posting our vic right now, I'm gonna go check in with him."

"Okay," Kate said.

Catherine left.  Kate stared at the screen, with the thousands of fingerprints whizzing by.  She was exhausted.  She hoped after a few days her body would get used to working the night shift.  She started to zone out when suddenly a voiced called out from behind her.

"You look like you could use some coffee."

Startled, Kate jumped, and the cordless mouse she had her hand on went flying across the table and fell to the floor.

Nick laughed.  "Sorry about that, didn't mean to scare you," he smiled as he picked up the mouse and put it back on the table.  Kate smiled back, embarrassed.  Their eyes met, and for a few seconds, they just stood there in an awkward silence, like two smiling idiots.

Nick finally broke their gaze.  "So," he said quickly, gesturing towards the door.  "Coffee?"

"Sure."

Sara was walking by and popped her head in the doorway when she saw Nick.  "Hey Nick, Greg has the results back on the hairs you collected from the bed.  I'm heading there right now," she informed him.

"How'd you find out before I did?"

"He paged me."

"Why'd he page you?  I told him to page me!"  Nick said, annoyed.

Sara shrugged and continued down the hall to the DNA lab, happy again for Greg's crush on her.  She always got first dibs on lab results.

Nick sighed, exasperated, and headed to the DNA lab.  "You coming?" he asked Kate.

Kate looked back at the screen with the fingerprints flying by.  She knew it would be awhile.  "Sure," she said, and followed him out the door.

By the time Nick and Kate got to the DNA lab, Greg was already discussing the results with Sara.  "Hey, Greggo," Nick said as soon as he walked in.  "I thought I asked you to page me when you got the results?"  Nick glared at Greg.

"Umm, yeah, I thought –" Greg stammered, but stopped when he noticed a cute blonde standing behind Nick.  "Hi, you must be Kate."  Greg smiled and extended his hand.  He realized he still had his gloves on, and quickly retracted his hand, ripped his glove off, embarrassed, and re-extended his hand.

Kate smiled and shook Greg's hand.  "And you must be Greg.  I've heard a lot about you already."

"Oh really," he said coyly.  "What have you heard, exactly?"

Nick noisily cleared his throat.  "Ahem, Greg, the hair samples?"

Greg snapped out of his trance.  "Oh, right.  Well the red hair was from your vic, so surprise there.  On a side note, however, she was not a true redhead.  The blonde hair came back unknown, also XX.

Nick looked a little surprised.  "Another female?"

"Yep," Greg answered.  "Looks like your case just got a little kinkier."

"Well that doesn't necessarily mean that the two women were both actually _in_ the bed.  Or in bed at the same time, for that matter," Kate stated logically.

"Well, um, of course.  Right," Greg stammered, embarrassed that he jumped to conclusions and made himself look like a foolish lab geek in front of Kate, who he thought was a babe.  Not more of a babe than Sara, though.  But he still wanted to make a good first impression, considering he was getting nowhere with Sara.

"What about those jelly samples?  Any DNA?" Nick asked.

"Yeah, tons," Greg answered.  "Weren't from your vic, but they did match the DNA from the blonde hair."

"Did you ever find out what that jelly stuff actually was?" Kate asked.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I did."  Greg was excited to show off to Kate with his chemical knowledge.  "Your assumption was correct, it was just your average petroleum jelly, but it also had traces of uric acid, choline and a bunch of inorganic salts – sodium, potassium, magnesium, etcetera."

"Sweat," Kate quickly deduced.

"Yep," Greg replied, a little disappointed that Kate wasn't impressed by his chemical knowledge but also excited that she was cute _and_ smart.

"That's so weird, we didn't find any jars of it anywhere in that bedroom," Nick said, confused.

"Maybe the blonde took it with her when she left," Greg offered.

"Yeah, maybe," Nick replied distractedly, flipping through the pages of the results.  "Well, thanks Greg," he said without looking up, as he turned to leave.

"No problemo."  Greg turned to Kate.  "I um, guess I'll see you later."

"Yeah," Kate smiled.

Sara rolled her eyes as she followed Nick out the door, a little tired of all the flirting that seemed to be going on whenever Kate was around.

Shift was finally over.  Their case wasn't solved yet; they would have to continue working on it the next night.  Kate was a little bummed that she didn't solve a case during her first shift, but she was so tired that it didn't bother her too much.  She was alone in the locker room, grabbing her things and getting ready to head home and sleep.  Nick and Warrick walked in, talking animatedly to each other.  Kate wondered how they could act so happy and lively after the exhausting night they had.

"Hey Kate," Nick said as he walked to his locker.  "Warrick owes me breakfast and I'm sure he'd splurge to welcome our new intern.  You hungry?"

"Uh, sure."  She was pretty tired but she didn't want to miss a chance to hang out with these guys.

"Great," Nick said, just as Sara walked in.  "Hey Sar, breakfast?  Warrick's buying."

"Alright, count me in," Sara quickly replied.

"Hey, hey, hey," Warrick protested.  He turned to Nick.  "Don't be spreadin' the love when it's not yours to spread."

"Hey, I won the bet, fair and square," Nick reminded Warrick.

"Oh, c'mon Warrick," Sara said as she playfully put an arm around his shoulder."  We all know you're just a big love spreader."

"Yeah, whatever," Warrick grumbled as he removed Sara's arm and slammed his locker shut.  "Hurry up then.  I'm hungry."

"Yay!" Sara rejoiced.

The four arrived at a small diner and were seated at a booth near a window.  Kate slid in first and Warrick sat next to her.  Sara slid in on the other side and Nick sat next to her.  They waited for the waitress in silence.  Kate browsed the menu; the other three already knew what they wanted since they had been to the diner several times before.  Just as Nick was about to say something, the waitress arrived.

"Can I get you folks some coffee, OJ?"

"Coffee, please," Warrick said.

"Make that two," Nick said.

"Three," Kate said.

"Tea, please, with honey," Sara said.

"Okay, be right back."

Just as the waitress left, Sara poked Nick in the arm.  "Scoot," she told him.

"What?"

"Scoot.  I need to use the restroom."

Nick started to slide out, rolling his eyes.  "You couldn't go before we sat down?"

"Well sure, but then I wouldn't get this chance to annoy you," Sara teased.  "Order for me," she said to Nick as she headed for the restroom.

"Yeah, yeah," Nick grumbled.

Just then the waitress came back with their drinks.  "You ready to order?"

The men gestured for Kate to start.  "I'll have the French toast with eggs, scrambled please," she said.

"Double stack of pancakes, hash browns, and bacon," Warrick said.

"I'll have the waffles with extra bacon and sausage, wheat toast, and she'll have the veggie omelet, egg whites only, no onions, extra mushrooms," Nick said, ordering for himself and gesturing toward the empty seat next to him while ordering for Sara.

"What kind of toast did you want with that omelet?" the waitress asked.

"Wheat, no butter," Nick replied.

"Alrighty," the waitress said as she left.

Kate was impressed that Nick spit out Sara's order as if it were his own.  She figured they must eat there a lot for him to remember all of Sara's breakfast idiosyncrasies.

Sara came back from the restroom and the waitress returned shortly after with their food.  

"Enjoy," the waitress smiled as she handed them their plates and left.

"Oh, wait, could I get some extra-" Nick started to ask but realized that one, the waitress was already gone, and two, that Sara had negated his need to call the waitress back when she put her little cup of whipped butter on the edge of Nick's plate.  Without another word, he dumped Sara's butter onto his waffles, using his own butter for his toast.

"So, you moved from the east coast all the way to Vegas to work with Catherine?"  Warrick turned to Kate.

"Yep.  I went to school in Boston.  I thought that Las Vegas would be a nice change."

"Well it sure is a change, I don't know if it's a 'nice' change," Warrick said.

After several minutes of eating in silence, Nick spoke up.  "So did you grow up in Boston?" he asked as he handed Sara an extra napkin from the dispenser for no apparent reason, without even glancing in her direction.

"No, I actually grew up in New York.  Upstate," Kate answered as she noticed that Sara used the napkin to wipe the egg she had dropped in her lap.

A few more minutes passed until Nick broke the silence again.  "So what did you think of your first night as a CSI intern?"  He asked as he slathered a generous portion of jam on his toast.

"A little overwhelming.  Well more like a lot," Kate admitted.  "I don't know if I'll be able to handle this, night after night."  She watched Nick drench his toast with jam.  He used so much on his first slice that he didn't have any leftover for his second.  Kate watched as Sara, without a word, placed her unused packet of jam on the edge of Nick's plate.  Accordingly, Nick, without a word, picked it up and continued his assault on the second slice.

"Don't worry," Warrick assured Kate.  "You'll get used to it.  It'll take a few weeks.  But after that it's a blast."

As the silence resumed, Kate started to wonder why Nick and Sara were acting so strange.  It was like they had some weird connection.  They were completely focused on their own meals, off in their own little worlds as they ate, but they seemed to know exactly what the other was thinking or doing without even so much as glancing at each other.  First with the butter, and then with the napkin, and then the jam.

Warrick was the first to finish his meal.  "Ah, that hit the spot," he exclaimed satisfactorily, pushing his empty plate away.  "All I need is to catch a few Z's and I'll be good to go."

Kate smiled, but she really didn't hear what Warrick had said.  She now watched as Sara, who was almost done with her breakfast, glanced over at Nick's plate and noticed a piece of waffle that he didn't seem to be touching.  Without a word, she reached over and stabbed it with her fork.  Nick then silently handed her the maple syrup bottle, without any protest for the waffle she confiscated.

"If you don't hurry up and finish she'll take your food too," Nick said to Kate jokingly when he realized she was staring.

"Now you know why I hate buying for the 'human vacuum'," Warrick said sarcastically, referring to Sara and her voracious appetite.

"What?  Crime solving makes me hungry," Sara mumbled between mouthfuls.

~*~*~*~*~

A/N: I know you may be thinking 1) this story has no point, and/or 2) is this a N/S fic or what?  And all I'll say for now is 1) trust me, it does, and 2) patience!


	3. Cracking the Case

Chapter 3 – Cracking the Case

Before Kate knew it, her first three weeks at CSI had gone by.  She had helped solve six cases, and she was getting accustomed to working the night shift.  She was getting to know her co-workers better and loved working with all of them.  She especially liked working with Nick; he was always extra nice to her and always eager to help Kate learn the ins and outs of being a CSI.  Kate still wasn't sure about his relationship with Sara though; for the most part they acted like regular co-workers around each other but at times it seemed like they were dating, the way they sometimes connected with each other while they were working a case together.

Kate had to remind herself not to let her personal feelings get in the way of her job.  She didn't even know why she cared so much if Nick and Sara were dating or not.  It wasn't like their relationship would have any impact on her life.  It wasn't any of her business; she was there to learn about criminalistics.

Still, she found it a little difficult to work that night.  It was the first time she was working a case with just Nick and Sara, and she hoped she would be able to concentrate on piecing together evidence from the case rather than evidence of whether or not Nick and Sara were an item.  

 The three were in the layout room sifting through lab results, photos, and all of the evidence they had collected several hours earlier at their crime scene.  They all knew they were close to solving the case; they just needed to find that one piece of evidence that would seal the deal.

"This blood workup doesn't seem right," Kate said.

"Tox screen came back negative for any foreign substances," Sara replied.

"I know, but these hormone levels are way off.  Combined with this high blood glucose, I think it might be some kind of disease or genetic disorder."

"Diabetes?" Nick suggested.

"Possibly, but I don't think so."  Kate flipped through some more pages.  "Wait.  hCG?"

"What's that?" Nick asked.

"Human chorionic gonadotropin.  It means she was pregnant," Kate replied.

"Doc Robbins didn't say anything about a baby," Sara said.

"Well the body starts producing hCG once the egg is fertilized.  Which means maybe she was only a few days along?  Or…" Kate was thinking out loud.  She turned to the two CSI's to see what they thought they should do.

"You found it, you run with it," Nick said.

"Okay, "Kate said uneasily.  "Um, I guess I'll start by talking to Dr. Robbins."

"Go for it," Nick assured her with a smile.

"Okay," Kate said as she left, still a little unsure of what she was supposed to be looking for.

"Do you think one of us should've gone with her?" Sara asked Nick once Kate was gone.

"She's a smart girl, she'll be fine."

"Are you sure?  She's been here, what three weeks?  She still asks questions every five minutes like she needs permission to cross the street," Sara quipped.

"What?"

"Oh, c'mon.  'Nick, does this look right?  Nick, can you help me with the ALS?  Hey Nick, how do I fume this plastic bag?  Nick, which powder do I use?'" Sara mocked Kate.

Nick smiled, trying not to look embarrassed.  "She's trying to learn."

"I'm a CSI too.  I'm just as capable as you are at answering questions."

"Well maybe she feels intimidated by you," Nick offered.

"Why?"

"Well, you're a strong, intelligent woman . . ." Nick started to say.

"Nice try," Sara smiled.  "And don't try to change the subject."

"What subject?"

"How long has it been since you've had a date anyway?" Sara asked.

"Excuse me?"  Nick looked up from the photos he was studying.

"Why don't you just ask her out already and get it over with?"

"Look, I know you're only telling me this out of jealousy," Nick said straight-faced, "but I don't think it would be smart to date a co-worker.  Especially one who's Catherine's niece.  Besides, she's barely out of college."

"Whatever," Sara sighed, flipping through some files.  "I was just being observant."

"Right," Nick smiled.

Sara went silently back to work, while Nick pretended to work.  Sara's comments stirred up all the mixed emotions he was feeling about Kate.  He knew that something was going on between him and Kate, he just didn't know what it was.  He definitely knew that Kate liked to flirt with him.  But he still couldn't tell whether or not it was intentional or if it was just her personality.  He had only known her for a few weeks and couldn't read her very well yet.  Still, he hadn't really noticed Kate flirting with any of the other guys around the lab.

Regardless, he wasn't even sure how he felt about her flirting.  Most of the time he played along and flirted back, but he didn't really know why.  Maybe he thought they were just kidding around.  Maybe it was a reflexive "guy" thing that just sort of happens whenever a cute girl flirts with you.  Maybe it was a defense mechanism because he knew words were harmless and they prevented anything more serious from happening.  Or maybe he flirted back simply because he was beginning to like her in more than a co-worker kind of way.

The shrill chirping of Nick's cell phone interrupted his thinking.  "Stokes," he answered.  He listened for a few seconds.  "Excellent.  Follow up on that and call us when you find out.  We'll head back to the scene.  Yeah.  Okay.  Nice job, Kate."  He flipped the phone closed and got up.

"What's going on?" Sara asked, a little annoyed that Kate called Nick instead of coming back to tell them both.

"We gotta head back to the scene," Nick said as he was walking out the door.

"Why?" Sara asked, still in her seat.  Nick was already halfway down the hall and didn't hear her.  Sara let out an exasperated sigh as she hurried to catch up with him.

As Kate grabbed her things from her locker and got ready to head home, she couldn't wipe the huge smile from her face.  She was ecstatic.  Her astute observation of the lab results had given them that one piece of evidence that helped them solve the case.  It was the first time she had done something that really mattered.  She felt so important.  She was so happy that she didn't even feel tired, despite the fact that she had just pulled her first double.

"Hey, kiddo, I heard about your case.  Nice job," Catherine congratulated her niece as she entered the locker room.

"Thanks," Kate said.

"Don't you just feel great?"

"Yeah.  Now I know why you love your job so much."  She still couldn't stop from smiling.

"And you just started your internship.  Imagine how many more times you'll get this feeling."

"I can't wait!"

Catherine closed her locker.  "Well you better go home and try to get some sleep.  So you can be refreshed and ready to kick some more butt tomorrow!"

"Yeah," Kate smiled.

"I'll see you later," Catherine said as she walked out.

"Have a good night," Kate said.

"Hey Nick, nice job on your case," Kate heard her aunt say out in the hall.

"Thanks," Nick called out to her as he entered the locker room.  "But I think you deserve most of the credit," he said to Kate when he saw her standing at her locker.

"Thanks," Kate smiled.

"I think this calls for a celebration.  What do you say?  Dinner?  My treat," Nick offered.

Kate smiled back, a little unsure if she should accept.

"C'mon," Nick coaxed.  "You cracked your first case.  We can't let this opportunity go to waste."

Kate gave in.  "Okay," she smiled.  "Sure."

Kate was relieved that the restaurant Nick chose was a bar and grill restaurant, noisy and brightly lit.  She would have felt a little uncomfortable eating dinner alone with him at a quieter, fancier place.

"You like ribs?  They have the best barbeque sauce here.  Super tangy.  Almost as good as my dad makes back home," Nick said enthusiastically as he perused the menu.

"Actually, I'm a vegetarian," Kate smiled politely.

"You too?" Nick said.

"Too?" Kate asked, confused.

"Yeah.  Sara.  Ever since that pig in a blanket ordeal with Grissom."

"Appetizers?" Kate asked, even more confused.

"Huh?  No, pig in a blanket.  Long story," Nick said, waving his hand to shrug it off.  "Well I think they have pasta dishes and stuff here too.  Sorry, I didn't know about the vegetarian thing," he apologized.

"No problem," Kate said.  "I'm sure I'll find something."

The waiter came to take their order.  Kate settled on some pasta and Nick ordered his favorite barbeque ribs.

"So how'd you know about that human chorio whatever from those lab results?" Nick asked after the waiter left.

"Human chorionic gonadotropin?  I majored in physiology."

"I thought your degree was in criminal justice," Nick said, a little puzzled.

"It is.  Well one of them is.  I double majored.  Criminal justice and physiology."

"Damn," Nick responded, impressed.

Kate smiled.  "I couldn't make up my mind on which part of criminalistics I wanted to go into, field work or lab work, so I ended up majoring in both."

"Well it looks like you picked the right one.  You're a natural," Nick smiled.

"I must get it from my aunt."

A few seconds of awkward silence passed.

"So you said you were from New York?" Nick finally spoke.

"Yep," Kate answered.  "Born and raised.  I never really left until I went to school in Boston.  And even then, it wasn't that far from home.  Not compared to Vegas."

"It must have been hard to leave everyone behind," Nick said.  "Your family, friends, boyfriend." Nick subtly added in the boyfriend line, he wasn't exactly sure why.  It was like it accidentally slipped out.  He hoped Kate would just brush it off.  He didn't want to give her the impression that he cared whether or not she had a boyfriend.  Although he wasn't even sure if he actually did care if she had one or not.

Kate tried to suppress the big grin she felt coming.  _Boyfriend?_  She hadn't anticipated any boyfriend questions, especially not from Nick.  She wasn't sure if the inquiry was merely part of his attempt to make polite small talk, or if he intentionally added it in, so she didn't know whether or not to just brush it off.  The fact that she didn't have a boyfriend made things a little complicated.  Did she want him to think she was a loser who couldn't get a date?  Although that wouldn't have been exactly accurate, since she had just broken up with her boyfriend who she had been with for four years.  Did she want him to know that she was available?  Or did she not want him to know anything?  She took a few sips of her water to buy her some time to think things through.  She then realized that she was reading way too much into the whole thing, and decided to just brush it off.

"Yeah," she replied vaguely, as she took another sip of her water.

Nick immediately wondered whether or not Kate just brushed off the boyfriend issue or if she meant it was hard to leave her boyfriend.  Again, he was having trouble reading her.  He didn't know what to say next so the two sat in silence for a minute.

When Nick didn't say anything, Kate began to think that maybe Nick was actually trying to find out if she had a boyfriend.  Which she thought was kind of cute.  She was about to elaborate on her answer to his question when the waiter arrived with their food.

"Here are your ribs," the waiter said to Nick as he placed the platter on the table, "and your pasta," he said to Kate.

"Wow, that was fast," Nick said.

"We aim to please," the waiter smiled goofily.  "Enjoy your meal," he said as he left.

They both hungrily dug in and ate in silence for a few minutes.

"It actually was pretty hard leaving home.  A lot harder than I'd planned," Kate finally spoke.

"Huh?" Nick said, not realizing Kate was picking up the conversation they started before their food came.

"When I told my boyfriend that I wanted to come here and work with my aunt, he didn't want me to go," Kate started her explanation.

Nick found himself a little disappointed that Kate had just said 'my boyfriend,' and not 'my ex-boyfriend.'  He hoped the story would get better.  "Why not?" he asked, trying not to seem too eager.

Kate took a deep breath.  "We met in school.  My freshman year, his junior.  When he graduated, he applied to law school, and even though I told him he didn't have to stay in Boston for me, he did.  So two years later, when it's my turn to graduate, I decide I want to leave and he gets pissed."

"Ouch," Nick said.

"Yeah.  So long story short, he made me choose, him or Vegas.  And you can see which one I chose."

"Was it the right choice?"

"I guess.  I mean it's pretty hard to just leave someone you've been with for four years.  But he was busy with law school so the last year or so was a little shaky anyway.  So yeah, it was the right choice.  I'm totally over it.  I've moved on," Kate said confidently.

"New city, new start," Nick commented.

"Exactly," Kate replied.  "So, as you now know, I am completely available," Kate teased.

Nick smiled.  He realized he was actually happy to hear that.


	4. Rats!

A/N: Thank you all so so so so much for your reviews.  They make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  You guys rock!  I'm so glad you're enjoying the fic.  And to all you Snickers, I hope your patience isn't wearing thin.  But you'll be rewarded.  Eventually. =P  Well read on and find out what happens next!

~*~*~*~*~

Chapter 4 – Rats!

"Coffee already?  What, twenty four hours wasn't enough of a rest for you?" Sara said to Nick as she walked into the break room and saw Nick standing at the counter filling up his mug.

"Huh?" Nick replied, a little distracted.  "Just a little tired, that's all."

"I heard you were with Kate yesterday after shift."  Sara tried to sound casual as she poured hot water into a mug.

"You 'heard'?"  Nick asked, a bit upset that Sara made his off-the-clock activities sound like gossip.

"Warrick said he saw you two driving off."

"We went out to dinner.  To celebrate her solving the case," Nick responded, trying not to sound defensive.

"Uh-huh," Sara replied in a tone that clearly suggested she wasn't buying Nick's explanation.  She bobbed the teabag up and down in her mug as she went to sit down.

"Hi, Sara," Kate greeted cheerfully as she walked in and almost ran into Sara.

"Hi," Sara said back, forcing a smile, before she quickly continued on her way to sit next to Warrick, who had followed Kate in and had just plopped himself down on the couch.  Despite her best efforts to befriend Kate, Sara was beginning to dislike her more and more every day.  Sara knew that was unfair, for more reasons than one.  Kate was always friendly towards her, putting in a great deal of effort to try and become friends with Sara.  And to make matters worse, Kate seemed to be a natural when it came to criminalistics.  Sure, she asked a lot of questions, but she never compromised any evidence, she was always on top of everything, and she even solved the last case they worked on.  There were absolutely no reasons, professionally or personally, to dislike Kate.  Which was probably the reason why Sara disliked her.  She seemed too perfect.

"You know what they say about jealousy," Warrick started to say as soon as Sara sat down next to him.

"I am not jealous," Sara quickly sniped, glaring at Nick and Kate standing by the coffeemaker.

"Hi Nick," Kate smiled as she grabbed a mug off the counter.

"Hey.  You all rested up and ready to go tonight?" Nick asked as he reached for the coffee pot to fill Kate's mug.

"Thanks," she said as he finished pouring.  "Yeah.  Dinner last night was so good that I just zonked out as soon as I got home.  I slept till almost noon."

"Well you better cherish whatever sleep you can get.  It's hard to come by in this job."

Grissom walked into the break room, assignment slips in hand.

"What do you got for us boss?" Nick said eagerly, the caffeine already starting to kick in.

"Double whammy tonight.  419 on the Strip.  The Hilton.  You, me, Sara.  Warrick and Kate, 419 downtown.  Four Queens.  Catherine's on her way there already.  She's coming straight from Lindsey's school."

"Oh yeah, Lindsey's school play was tonight," Warrick said, getting up from the couch.

"She was Snow White.  I stopped by Aunt Catherine's house this afternoon when she was getting ready.  She looked so adorable," Kate said.

"Man, that kid's got some acting chops.  Sleeping Beauty, and now Snow White?"  Warrick said, impressed.

"Yeah, let's just hope she doesn't follow in the footsteps of her mother and move from the school auditorium stage to another kind of stage," Kate said as everyone headed out the door, groaning at her bad joke.

~~~

Grissom, Nick, and Sara arrived at their crime scene.  Nick and Sara headed straight to Detective Vega.  Grissom went into one of his 'modes' and started wandering around the room with his flashlight, slowly and silently, taking in the scene.

"Vic's name is Walter Beckett.  Age 43, California license," Detective Vega filled in the younger two CSI's.

"Coroner pronounced yet?"  Sara asked.

"No, you guys beat him.  Should be here any minute," Vega answered.

"I'll go down to the front desk, see what I can find out," Nick said.

"Who found him?" Sara asked as Nick left.

"Housekeeping," Vega replied.

"Don't they usually come in the morning?" Sara's mind kept churning out questions.

"They have two shifts, morning and night."

"Hey guys," David said as he entered.  "Hi Sara," he smiled when he noticed her.

"Hi David," Sara smiled back at the assistant coroner who had a crush on her.

David went to work as Sara stood over him and watched.  "Rigor's already set in.  Liver temp indicates TOD was about six or seven hours ago," he informed her.

"So, one, two o'clock," Sara deduced.

"Did housekeeping touch these curtains?" Grissom finally spoke.

"She said no.  Just opened the door and saw the body from the doorway," Vega said.

"These curtains are open," Grissom said.

"Window faces west, body would have been in direct sunlight," Sara quickly realized.  She walked over to the thermostat box on the wall.  "A/C would've been on, this thing's set at 68 degrees."

"So," Grissom queried, "if you mix a 97 degree sunny day, a 68 degree air-conditioned room, and a liver temp of…"

"Eighty-seven point one," David chimed in.

"Eighty-seven point one," Grissom continued, "what do you get?"

"I don't know, but I'll tell you what I got," Nick said as he walked into the room.  "I was down at the front desk when highway patrol called.  They found an abandoned vehicle just outside of Henderson.  Rental car, registered to a guest at this hotel.

"Walter Beckett?" Grissom asked hopefully.

"Yep," Nick confirmed.

"Good.  You two go.  I'll finish processing here," Grissom instructed.

Sara and Nick left.

"Uh, sir?" David timidly asked Grissom.

"David, you don't have to call me sir," Grissom laughed.

"Sorry, sir, uh, Mr. Grissom," David stuttered.  "I was just wondering if you were going to answer your own question."

"Huh?"

"What _do_ you get when you mix a 97 degree sunny day, a 68 degree air-conditioned room, and a liver temp of eighty-seven point one?"

"Why don't you tell me, David?" Grissom said as he followed Vega and the other officers out the door.  "I'll see you in post."

"Um, okay," David replied, confused yet again by Grissom.

~~~

Nick and Sara found two patrol cars waiting near the abandoned rental car.

"It sure is dark out here," Sara commented.

"Well it is the middle of the desert," Nick quipped as he cut the engine.

"We cleared the vehicle, didn't pop the trunk yet.  We were waiting for you," one of the officers said to them as they walked toward the car.

"Okay, thanks," Nick said.  Nick opened the driver's side door and looked around with his flashlight.  Sara went around to the other side to inspect the back seat.

"I got nothing, back seat is clean," Sara said, disappointed.

"Well that makes us 0 for 2," Nick replied back.  "Nothing up here."

"Trunk?" Sara suggested.

"Trunk."

"Okay, we're ready," Sara told the auto detail guy.  He effortlessly popped the trunk and stepped aside.  Sara flung it open.

"Empty," Nick sighed.  He looked around with his flashlight.  "No visible blood.  Got a strand of hair here.  Hand me a bindle, will you?"  He stuck out his hand towards Sara while still peering into the trunk but received nothing.

Sara had lost interest in the trunk as soon as they found it to be empty, and was now off in her own world, looking around the scene and formulating theories in her head.  "Do you smell that?" Sara asked, ignoring Nick's request.

Nick bent down into the trunk and sniffed.  "No."

"No, not in there.  Out here."

She looked around with her flashlight until it came to rest on a big sewer grate in the dirt about ten feet from the car.  Nick and Sara looked at each other.  They slowly approached the metal grate, noting the smell was getting stronger.  

"Could just be a dead animal," Nick said hopefully.

They reached the grate and both shined their flashlights inside.  "I don't see anything," Sara said.

Nick bent down and attempted to lift the grate to get a better view, but was having trouble.  "A little help here?" he grunted to Sara, who was standing right next to him but busy looking around.

"Oh, sorry."  Between the two of them, they managed to remove the grate  "Man, there is definitely a dead body in there," Sara said as she covered her nose with her arm.

Nick lay on his stomach and stuck his head into the hole to get a better view.  "Yeah, I think I see something.  Down the tunnel a little bit."  He got up, dusted himself off, and started to climb down the metal ladder that led down into the sewer.  "You coming?" he said to Sara when he noticed she wasn't budging.

"There are probably rats down there, right?" Sara asked.

"Uh, I don't know, maybe.  Why?"

"I don't do rats."

"You don't 'do' rats?" Nick smiled.

"No," Sara responded resolutely.

"Sara Sidle, afraid of rats?" Nick teased.

"I'm not afraid of them.  I just don't like them.  They're fat, smelly, filthy, disease carrying creatures."  Sara stood her ground.

"Relax," Nick said.  It's not like Vegas has killer sewer rats.  I heard that in New York City, people have seen rats over two feet long!  But I'm sure these guys here are no bigger than a foot, foot and a half at the most," Nick continued to tease her.

"Not helping," Sara fumed.

"Okay, okay," Nick smiled.  "I will go down first, secure the area of all rats, and then you can come down.  Deal?"

"Fine."

Nick disappeared into the sewer.  After a minute, he yelled up to Sara.  "No furry friends in sight.  Just a floater."

"Are you sure?  About the rats?" Sara yelled back to him.

"Yes, I'm sure Sara, just get down here.  Relax, will you?  It's just a sewer."

"And hell is just a sauna," she muttered to herself as she carefully climbed down.

"Female, looks pretty young, mid-twenties maybe.  And actually just a partial floater.  Only her legs made it into the water," Nick informed her as she approached.

"Good for us, her upper body wasn't contaminated by the water," Sara concluded.

Nick shined his flashlight along the walkway and down the tunnel into the silent darkness, looking for any signs of evidence.  "Yeah, hopefully all the evidence hasn't been washed away."

In the darkness on the other side of the tunnel, there was a splash in the water.  Sara turned around toward the source of the splash and reflexively grabbed Nick's arm.  "What was that?" she asked, terrified.

Nick smiled at the fact that Sara was actually afraid.  "I'm sure it was just gas bubbles or floating garbage or something.

"Oh."  Sara quickly let go of Nick's arm when she realized she had grabbed it.  "Can we just call David now so we can get out of here?" Sara said huffily.  "We need to get back to the lab."

"Alright, alright.  Don't get your panties in a twist," Nick teased.  "I'm gonna look around down here a little more.  Why don't you go back up and finish processing the trunk of the car."

"Gladly," Sara said without protest as she quickly headed for the ladder.

After finishing up at their scene, Nick and Sara drove back to the lab.  Their first stop was the DNA lab, to drop off their evidence to Greg.  As they walked down the hallway and turned a corner, they almost collided with Grissom, mainly because his nose was buried in a case file.

"Hey, I heard you guys found another body," Grissom said, not apologizing for the near collision.

"Yeah, female," Sara said.  "In the sewer."

"Hmm," Grissom pondered for a split second, then continued on his way.  "Doc Robbins is posting our first vic," he indicated where he was rushing off to.  "Let me know what you find out about the second body."  He stuck his nose back into the file folder and immediately almost ran into someone else.

"Sure thing," Nick said as he exchanged glances with Sara, both of them wondering how Grissom could be so smart yet so scatterbrained at the same time.

"Hey Greggo," Nick greeted the lab tech as he and Sara entered.

"Come to give me more work?" Greg grumbled amidst a cluttered benchtop covered with evidence bags, swabs, and tubes.

"Must be your lucky day," Nick said.

"Nothing too exciting, just a hair," Sara informed him.

Warrick walked through the door with a handful of small evidence bags and envelopes.  "Hey Greg, I need you to run DNA profiles on these samples," he said holding up the samples in one hand, "and cross-reference them with these," he said holding up the samples in his other hand.  "And I need these," he pulled some envelopes out of his lab coat pocket, "run through the GC/MS."  He dumped everything on the benchtop.

"You need, you need, you need," Greg muttered.  "What about my needs?"

"You need to keep your job, don't you?"  Warrick said.  "Process."

"Thanks Greg," Nick smiled, patting Greg on the back.

"Yeah, yeah," Greg muttered back.

The three CSI's walked out and left Greg to do his work.  Nick and Sara headed for the autopsy room to see their female victim.

"Hey David, what do you got for us?" Nick said as he and Sara entered the autopsy room.

"Prints came back Annette Santini, age 25.  She had a non-gaming work card.  Cocktail waitress at the Hilton," David informed them.

"Same hotel we found our first vic at," Sara realized.

"Cause of death?" Nick asked.

"I did find blunt force trauma to the head, but I don't think that was fatal.  Cause of death was most likely asphyxiation.  Bruising on her neck, petechial hemorrhaging, cyanosis of the lips."

"These her films?" Sara asked, walking over to the x-rays pinned up on the light box on the wall.

"Yep.  She had quite a few fractures, new and old.  Several healed rib fractures, probably a year old.  Collarbone fracture, nasal bone, also pretty old.  Fresh wrist and forearm fractures," David pointed out on the x-rays.  "Bruising all over her arms indicated the fractures were perimortem."

"Did you collect a rape kit?" Sara asked, a little upset over what she was hearing.  She hated seeing women like this, battered and abused.

"I was just about to," David answered.

"Thanks David, let us know what you find out," Nick said, indicating they were through.  He noticed Sara looked upset and wanted to get her out of there before she got too emotional.  "We should hook up with Grissom, see what he found on the first vic," Nick suggested to Sara.

"Yeah," Sara replied, distracted, as she turned and walked swiftly out the door without saying another word.

Nick, Sara, and Grissom spent the next several hours in the layout room examining lab results and evidence they had collected.  By the end of shift they realized they had nothing, not even a lead.

Grissom sighed as he tossed some photos onto the table and leaned back in his chair.  "Why don't you two go home, get some rest," he said to Nick and Sara.  "Come back later with a clear head."

"Yeah, good idea," Nick agreed as he got up from his chair.  Sara didn't budge, continuing to stare at the scene photos in front of her.

"Sara," Grissom gently scolded, knowing full well she had heard him.

"I think I'm gonna go take a look at this shirt again," she said, holding up a photo of a bloody shirt.  "I think we missed something."  She got up, completely ignoring Grissom's instructions.

"Sara," Nick almost begged, knowing his pleas would be useless.  He hoped Grissom would step in and say something, since she usually listened to Grissom more than she did Nick.  He didn't, however, and he let Sara leave.  Nick looked at Grissom, who merely shrugged.  Nick sighed, upset at Sara for being her stubborn self and upset at Grissom for not trying to stop her.  He headed for the locker room, knowing that talking to Sara would be useless at this point.

He ran into Kate in the locker room, who was grabbing her things to go home.

"You guys solve your case?" Nick asked.

"Yep, slam dunk," Kate replied cheerfully.

"Then the night wasn't a total loss," Nick said bitterly.

"Tough case?" Kate asked, her cheerfulness slightly dissipated by Nick's gloominess.

"Yeah," Nick sighed.  "We've got absolutely nothing. Grissom sent us home to clear our heads, Sara won't give it a rest."

"Wanna grab breakfast?  To 'clear your head'?  My treat this time." Kate offered.

"Sure," Nick replied.  He needed someone to cheer him up; he knew Kate would.

They drove to the same diner where they had breakfast after Kate's first night at CSI.  They sat in the same booth and ordered the same thing.  They made small talk about their cases until their food arrived.

"So," Kate said as they ate.  "Tell me about yourself," she said to Nick.

"What?" Nick smiled, surprised at Kate's question.

"Well, you know so much about me, but I don't know anything about you," she pointed out.  "So spill," she said with mock severity.

"Okay, what do you want to know?"

"You were born, then what?" Kate smiled.

Nick proceeded to tell Kate his life story, about Texas, his big family, growing up into law enforcement, his brief stint on the Dallas police force, his start as a criminalist, and his move to Vegas.

"Wow," Kate said after Nick finally finished.  "What a fascinating life," Kate smiled.

"It was, at times, I guess," Nick said.

"Can I ask you something?" Kate said tentatively.

"Shoot."

Kate took a deep breath and paused for a second before asking.  "Are you and Sara…" she couldn't finish her question.

"Are Sara and I what?" Nick asked, pretty sure what Kate was getting at but wanting her to actually say it.

"You know," Kate continued, still not having the courage to spit it out.

"I know what?" Nick countered, continuing to tease her.

"Nick!" Kate exclaimed, frustrated.

Nick laughed.  "Sorry."  He just looked at her, still not answering her question.

Kate gave him a look back, waiting for his answer.

"There is no me and Sara," he finally said.

"Oh," was all Kate could say.

"Why would you think that?" Nick asked.  His question was an honest one; he had no idea where Kate would have gotten the idea.

"I don't know," Kate seemed shyer all of a sudden.  "It's just the way you two act around each other.  Like you're two peas in a pod sometimes, even when you're on a case together."

"I hate peas," Nick joked as he scrunched up his nose.

Kate smiled, but then her face was serious again as she continued.  "You guys are always thinking the same thing, always on the same page.  So I just thought…"

"That's just how we are," Nick explained.  "I guess it's why we work so well together.  I don't know, I guess I never really gave it much thought.  We're just good friends, that's all."

Kate played with the scraps of food on her plate.  "So…" she said.

"So," Nick said.  "As you now know, I am completely available," he smiled, mimicking the phrase she had used the other day to inform him of her single status.


	5. Birds

Chapter 5 – Birds

The next night, Kate could hardly wait to go to work.  Her breakfast with Nick was so great that she couldn't wait to see him again.  After he revealed that he and Sara weren't together, they spent the next several hours walking along the Strip, talking and shamelessly flirting with each other.  Once Kate finally got home, well after noon, she was too excited to sleep and ended up napping for only a few hours.

She walked through the halls toward the breakroom with the biggest smile on her face.  Even though nothing had happened between her and Nick yet, she knew it was only a matter of time.  The only thing that could have dampened her spirits was the fact that they were at work, so they'd have to act professional, at least somewhat, as they focused on solving their cases.  Nonetheless, Kate was just happy to see Nick and be near him.

Nick sat alone in the breakroom with his cup of coffee.  Shift didn't officially start for another thirty minutes.  Beside the fact that he was in the middle of a hot case, he realized that the reason he was there so early was because he was eager to see Kate.  He had a great time with her at breakfast and their stroll down the Strip.  She was cute, smart, funny and seemed really mature for her age.  When he talked with her, it never crossed his mind that he was ten years older than her.  He no longer denied the fact that he was beginning to like Kate as more that just a co-worker.  That morning they had spent together just talking had erased any hesitations he had.  While his feelings for Kate weren't nearly as strong as hers were for him, he knew he definitely felt something.  

Nevertheless, he couldn't seem to ignore Kate's comment about him and Sara.  It made him see that he kind of took his relationship with Sara for granted.  He knew they got along great and worked well together, but aside from that he never really gave it much thought. Mostly because they were co-workers.  The last thing on Nick's mind at work was romance; he made it a priority to invest his full attention to his cases.

And with that thought, Nick decided he should go and find Sara to catch up on any new findings on their case; he knew she was already there or most likely had never left from the night before.  He was about to get up when he heard someone come in.

"Hi," Kate said as she entered the breakroom and saw Nick sitting alone on the couch.  All of a sudden she felt nervous.

"Hi," Nick smiled up at her.  "How was your afternoon?"

Kate sat down next to him, his smile and soft drawl quickly erasing her jitters.  "Good," she smiled back.

"Did you get any sleep?"

"Some.  Enough, I hope."  She couldn't stop smiling.

Sara walked in and headed straight for the coffeemaker.  When she saw Nick on the couch with Kate, who was smiling dopily at him, she decided to ignore them.

"Hi Sar," Nick called out in an almost chiding tone once he noticed her and it didn't appear that she was going to say hi to him.

"Hi," she greeted him with her best fake smile, one that even Nick couldn't tell was fake.  Without another word she sat down at the table and proceeded to flip through a forensic journal that was lying there, pretending to read it.  _How could he leave in the middle of a hot case to go out with her?_ Sara thought.

"Hey girl," Warrick said to Sara as he came in, with Catherine following right behind him.

"Hey," she said back, with a trace of bitterness in her voice.

Catherine sat at the table next to Sara and started reading over her shoulder.  Warrick poured a cup of coffee and handed it to Catherine.  As he stirred cream and sugar into his own cup, he watched Nick and Kate on the couch across the room.

"What's up with them?" he asked, referring to the rather intimate conversation it appeared the two were having.

"Who knows," Sara said, a little to bitterly, abruptly flipping the journal closed, causing Catherine and Warrick to exchange looks.  "I gotta get back to work, I'll see you guys later."  With that, Sara got up to leave without bothering to fill Nick in on the case.  As she stormed out she nearly bowled over Grissom, who was heading in to hand out assignments.

Grissom gave Sara a puzzled look when she continued down the hall without apologizing, but quickly blew it off as he turned to the rest of his team.  "Double homicide at a liquor store in Henderson.  It'll be just the three of you," Grissom said, pointing to Warrick, Catherine, and Kate.  "Nick, Sara found some things in Mr. Beckett's suitcases that might give us some leads.  Have her fill you in.  I'll be at PD."

"Okay," Nick said as he got up to find Sara.

Sara had gone back to the layout room to continue her work, quickly forgetting about Nick and Kate.  She had been sorting through the suitcases they found in the hotel room of their first victim.  She was waiting for the information on the background check that Detective Vega was running, so for the time being she was trying to use the contents of the suitcases to get some leads.

"Hey," Nick said when he came in.

"Mr. Beckett had two suitcases.  Enough clothes for at least four weeks, but he was only registered at the hotel for a week."  Sara quickly got down to business.  "Looks like he was in town for business, he's got a bunch of shirts and ties here.  Archie's checking out the laptop we found.  And Vega's running a background check."

"What did the rape kit on the female vic say?" Nick asked.

"The clock indicated rape.  Positive for semen.  Two donors, one was Mr. Beckett, the other came back unknown," Sara replied a little angrily.  She hated rape cases.

"At least now we have a link between the two vics."

"Yeah."

"I'll check in with Archie, see if he found anything," Nick said.  After a few seconds he added, "You gonna be okay?"

"I'll be fine," Sara almost snapped as she continued to poke through the contents of the suitcase, not looking up at him.

Nick stood and watched Sara get back to work, already starting to worry about her.  Rape cases always upset her more than their usual cases.  While she always put a hundred and ten percent into every case she worked, those involving violence against women caused her to kick into high gear.  He admired Sara for her drive and determination – she was more passionate about her job than anyone he'd ever known – but he worried that one day the emotional stress would be too much for her to handle.  He sighed as he left for A/V to find Archie.

From the start of shift Nick knew it would be a tough night, but he had no idea it would be as bad as it was.  It was finally over, and as he sat on the cold metal bench in the locker room with his head in his hands, he couldn't seem to shake the events of the tumultuous night from his mind.  The strangest part about it all was that he wasn't concerned at all about how it was affecting him, but rather how it was affecting one of his co-workers.

~*~

It all started shortly after shift began.  As if one rape victim wasn't bad enough, they had found another one.  A visit to their female victim Annette Santini's apartment led them to Annette's roommate, who they found bruised and beaten, but fortunately sill alive.  Nick and Sara followed the ambulance to the hospital to collect samples once the woman was stabilized.

They waited a short while until a doctor came to get them.  They approached the room and saw the frail woman through the glass window, hooked up to a respirator, her face bruised and swollen.

"Son of a bitch," Sara whispered as she turned away, unable to look at the poor woman lying in the hospital bed.

Nick could see she was trying to hold back tears.  "Sara, I can take care of this.  You can help Grissom back at the apartment," he offered.

"I'm fine.  I'm doing this," she said as she pushed past him to enter the room.

After samples were collected and analyzed, and the apartment was processed, it took several hours to piece everything together.  The story that they had uncovered was more complicated than a soap opera, involving an ex-prostitute trying to start a new life, her roommate, an out-of-town businessman cheating on his wife with an ex-prostitute, and a jealous ex-boyfriend/former pimp of an ex-prostitute.

In the end they had only one suspect, Leo Vincent, the jealous ex-boyfriend/former pimp.

In the interrogation room, Vincent sat on one side of the table with his lawyer, while Nick and Detective Vega sat across from him.  Grissom watched from behind the one-way glass window.  Sara stood in the corner of the room, glaring at the suspect.  She couldn't stand how calm and unremorseful Vincent looked as Nick and Vega asked him questions.

"Well then can you explain why your semen was collected from Rose Finch?" Vega continued.

"Who?  I don't know that bitch.  She's not one of my girls," Vincent responded evenly.

"That's not what we asked, Mr. Vincent," Nick said, trying not to lose his temper.

Unlike Nick, Sara was unable to keep her cool any longer.  "Why don't you just admit it?" she said angrily as she stepped forward out of her dark corner.  "You knew Rose was the only one who could turn you in for Annette's murder, so you tried to kill her too."

"That's a nice little story," Vincent replied.  

"That was a big mistake, not checking to see if she was dead," Sara continued, her tone increasingly bitter.  "Without your DNA on file, you knew the only way to ID you would be through an eye witness.  Too bad for you that Rose woke up."

Vincent retained his stoic expression as he looked Sara up and down.  "You know, you come work for me, you could pull in some serious green, with those long legs, cute ass.  And that attitude.  You know, a lot of guys like a girl to boss 'em around once in awhile."

"You bastard," Sara said as she started to lunge across the table toward Vincent.  Nick immediately sprang out of his chair to grab Sara before she did anything stupid.  "You lure innocent and vulnerable women and then you kill them?  What's wrong with you!  You're looking at two murders and a rape!  You know what kind of time that'll get you?"  Sara was yelling now.

Vincent stared silently back at her, unflinching through her outburst, his face emotionless.

"You'll get eaten alive in state pen," her voice returned to normal as she gave him her iciest glare.  She wrestled free from Nick's grasp and stormed out, past Grissom and down the hall, the tears already starting to fall as they stung her eyes and blurred her vision.

~*~

Nick looked up when he heard the door to the locker room open.  

"Hey, you okay?" Kate asked when she saw Nick sitting there.

"Yeah.  Rough case."

"You up for breakfast?"

"Thanks, but I think I just wanna crash.  Rain check?"  Breakfast with Kate actually did sound good, but Nick was too worried about Sara.

"Okay.  See you later."  Kate shut her locker and left.

A few seconds later, the door opened again.  Sara slowly walked in, passing Nick to reach her locker, not saying a word.  She looked exhausted, her eyes still a little red from crying.

"You wanna grab some breakfast?" Nick asked cautiously.

"Thanks, but I'd rather just go home.  I don't really feel like being out in public right now," Sara replied quietly.

"Well then you can come to my place.  I'll make breakfast.  I don't think you should be alone right now."

"Nick, I'm fine.  Really."  Sara sighed.  It felt like she'd said she was 'fine' about a hundred times over the past couple of days.  And most of those were directed at Nick.  She shut her locker and tried to move past Nick towards the door.  He got up and gently reached for her arm to stop her.

"Sara, please," Nick pleaded.

Sara looked into Nick's eyes and saw his worry and genuine concern for her.  She was too drained to argue so she gave in.  "Fine," she whispered.

"Thank you."  Nick was relieved Sara agreed.  He wouldn't be able to sleep knowing she was in the condition she was in.  He had seen her get emotional before, but this time seemed different.

They silently left the locker room and walked down the hall, out to the parking lot.  Nick opened the passenger door of the SUV for Sara; she climbed in.  Nick started the engine and pulled out of the lot.  They rode in silence for several minutes until Nick finally spoke.

"So what do you feel like eating?" Nick tried to by cheery.  "You've got your choice of pancakes or eggs.  That's about the extent of my culinary skills when it comes to breakfast."

"Whatever's easiest for you," she replied politely.  She had left the lab feeling completely drained, physically and emotionally.  Shift had been one of the worst in a long while, so bad that it made her question whether or not she could continue doing her job.  But just by sitting in the truck with Nick, she started to feel better.  Just knowing that someone cared about her and was so worried about her made her feel good.  Nick had so much strength and courage, it was like it was radiating off of him and she was absorbing it.  She leaned back against the headrest and stared out the window, a small smile creeping to her lips.

Nick unlocked his front door and motioned for Sara to go in first.  He followed and shut the door behind him.  "I'm gonna get changed real quick," he said to her as he headed for his bedroom.

"Okay."  Sara had been to Nick's several times before and had no trouble making herself comfortable.  She plopped down on the cushy, black leather sofa, grabbed the remote, and turned the TV on.  She smiled when the picture came on and she realized it was Animal Planet.  She settled in and started watching some show about birds.

"So what did we decide on?  Pancakes?" Nick asked as he emerged from his bedroom in track pants and a t-shirt.

"Actually, I'm not really hungry.  I just feel like relaxing for now."

"Okay," he said as he sat down next to her.  "What are we watching?"

"Your favorite," Sara smiled.  "Birds.  The mating rituals of the blue-billed Alaskan swallowtail."

"You know, just because we're in my house doesn't mean we have to watch what I like.  I think I can suck it up this once and watch some forensic show on Court TV," Nick joked.

"It's okay," Sara said.  "This is kind of interesting."

"Alright, suit yourself."

They sat for several minutes in silence watching the blue-billed Alaskan swallowtails do their thing.  Sara was starting to get sleepy and leaned her head on Nick's shoulder.  She didn't even realize she had done so until Nick started to move his arm.  She lifted her head up figuring he wanted her to move, but instead Nick lifted his arm and wrapped it around her shoulder.  She found her head resting on Nick's warm, strong chest, his slow, rhythmic breathing causing a wave of calm to spread throughout her body.  She felt so safe and relaxed, and, at least for that moment, all her fear and sadness seemed to melt away.   She was glad that Nick convinced her to come over.

"Nick?" she whispered.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."


	6. The Morning After?

Chapter 6 – The Morning After?

Sara opened her eyes.  She was lying in bed, tucked in snugly under a cozy, dark green comforter and light green sheets.  _Green? Aren't my sheets blue?_  She looked around and realized she wasn't in her own bedroom.

"Well good afternoon, sleepyhead," a voice said behind her.  She turned around to see Nick standing in the bedroom doorway, buttoning the last few buttons on his shirt.  She could tell he had just gotten out of the shower; his hair was still wet.

"Hi," she smiled and quickly sat up, a little embarrassed.  _How did I end up in Nick's bed?  The last thing I remember was watching birds on TV… and Nick's chest…_

"Did you sleep okay?" Nick asked.

"Yeah," Sara replied, her mind racing, trying to remember how she ended up in Nick's bed.

"You zonked out pretty fast.  In between the swallowtails and the New Zealand pelicans.  I guess I was the only one who thought the show was interesting," Nick grinned.

"Really?  God, I don't even remember," she said distractedly, still confused.

Nick noticed her perplexed expression.  "When I realized you were asleep I picked you up and carried you in here.  I didn't want to wake you," he explained.

"Oh," was all she could manage to say.  She knew Nick used his spare bedroom as an office.  _So where did you sleep?_

"I crashed on the sofa," Nick smiled, as if reading her mind.  "C'mon, get up," he said to her as he headed for the kitchen.  "Coffee should be ready."

Sara just sat in bed for a moment, groggy and still trying to process what Nick had just told her.  She remembered when she first came to Vegas over three years ago, how she had wondered what it would be like to wake up in Nick's bed.  But that was before she got to know him and became one of his good friends.  Now she just thought it was awkward.

She sighed and pulled off the blankets, swinging her legs over the side of the bed.  She looked down and noticed her shoes lined up neatly on the floor.  She smiled at the thought of Nick's tidiness, wishing she were the same way.  As she walked through the living room to the kitchen she glanced at the sofa and noticed a pillow and a neatly folded blanket, confirming Nick had indeed slept there.  Was there something inside her that wished he hadn't?

She looked out the window, noticing the sun shining brightly.  "What time is it?" she asked as she sat down in front of the cup of coffee Nick had poured for her.

"A little after four."

"Four?  Wow, I haven't gotten that much sleep in ages."

"Well let me just say that sleep agrees with you.  You look very refreshed," Nick smiled.

Sara blushed, she wasn't sure why.

After a few seconds, Nick's expression turned serious.  "So are you okay?"

Sara thought for a moment.  She actually did feel a lot better.  She seemed to have slept off the horrors of the case from the night before.  "I am," she replied resolutely.

"Good.  I don't want to have to go through this again any time soon.  That sofa isn't the most comfortable thing to sleep on, you know," Nick joked.

"Sorry," Sara laughed.

They sat in silence, drinking their coffee.  Nick browsed the sports section of the paper, while Sara mindlessly stared at the front page.  Why did Sara feel so awkward?  It felt like the morning after.  Not that she'd had many of those.  She figured Nick probably had.  Maybe that's why he seemed so calm.  Like everything that happened was normal.  But to Sara it wasn't.  She had just spent the night at Nick's.  Granted, nothing had happened, and he was one of her closest friends, but she felt as if something changed between them because of it.

"Well I think I better get home and shower and everything before shift starts," Sara said after a few minutes.

"Okay."

They both got up from the table.  Sara headed for the door and Nick followed to see her out.  Suddenly Sara stopped and turned around.

"My Dena-" she started to say.

"Is back at the lab," Nick realized.

"Yeah."

"No problem," Nick said, grabbing his keys from the counter.  "I'll take you home."

"Oh, um, okay."  Sara thought Nick would say he'd drop her off at the lab so she could pick up her truck.  "You know, you could just drop me off at the lab, then I can drive myself home."

"It's okay.  Besides, your place is closer than work.  And you'd be backtracking."

"Okay," she easily gave in.

A few minutes later they arrived at Sara's.  She unlocked her front door and turned to Nick.  "Thanks for everything."

"Sure," he smiled.  "Give me a call when you're ready and I'll come and pick you up," he said as he turned to walk back to his Denali.

"Hey Nick," Sara called out impulsively.  "Do you wanna wait here?  I mean, unless you have other plans, or something, or whatever," she stammered.

"Well actually," he smiled, "I have absolutely nothing else to do.  So I would love to wait here."

"Okay," she opened the door and motioned for him to come in.  A small wave of panic hit her when she realized she hadn't had time to clean up.  She hoped her place wasn't too messy and she didn't have anything embarrassing lying around.

"Uh, I need to shower and get out of these clothes, so, um, make yourself comfortable.  Help yourself to anything in the fridge.  I'm not sure if there's much in there though, I haven't had time to go shopping lately," Sara apologized as she headed for her bedroom.

"That's okay, I'm fine," Nick said as he sat down on her sofa.  He picked up one of the many forensic journals from her coffee table and started to flip through it.

Thirty minutes later, Sara emerged from her bedroom in clean clothes, her hair washed and blow-dried.

"You wanna go grab some lunch?  Or I guess it would be dinner now.  We have a couple hours till shift starts," Nick said.

"Sure."

"There's this new Greek place that just opened up by my house.  I mean if you like Greek food," Nick said.

"Yeah.  That's fine," Sara smiled.

They ate mostly in silence, just enjoying each other's company.  Sara could have sworn Nick was staring at her, but she didn't want to make eye contact with him to try and find out.  Maybe she had a piece of lettuce stuck between her teeth.  She took a sip of water to try and wash it away and then continued eating.  Nope, he was still staring at her.

"Do I have something stuck in my teeth?" she said all of a sudden.

"What? Uh, no," Nick said, realizing Sara may have caught him staring at her.  He couldn't help it.  He liked how her cheeks got puffy like a chipmunk's when she chewed.

"Oh."

"Relax, Sara, it's just me.  Besides, do you think I'd let you embarrass yourself by walking out of here with food between your teeth?" Nick teased.

"Hey- " she started to protest, already remembering countless times when Nick had embarrassed and teased her.

"On second thought, don't answer that," he interrupted with a sly smile.  He was sure someone as hardheaded as Sara would remember every single practical joke he'd played on her over the years.

They went back to eating, and this time it was Sara who was doing the staring.  She was battling with herself over whether or not she was starting to have feelings for Nick.  Over the three years they'd worked together they'd gotten to know each other really well, and now they were like best friends.  But ever since Kate showed up and all the flirting at work started, Sara noticed she was starting to feel jealous.  And she knew the only logical explanation for her jealousy was that she was starting to have feelings for Nick.  Still, she didn't really understand why she was having these feelings.  Nick was her friend, but as far as being boyfriend material, she didn't really think he was her type.  She definitely knew she wasn't his type.  Nick wasn't the playboy that most people thought he was, but he still had standards, and Sara was sure she fell far below them.  She also knew that Nick would never see her as anything more than a friend, which didn't make things any easier for her and her mixed up feelings.

She watched Nick's chiseled jaw move up and down as he chewed.  She smiled to herself as she remembered that Nick had once told her how as a kid he used to get teased about his strong jaw.  But Sara thought it was his best feature.

As Nick ate, he could have sworn Sara was staring at him, but he didn't want to make eye contact with her.  "What?" he said when he saw her smiling.

"Nothing."

He gave her a puzzled look; she merely smiled back at him.

"Now you really do have something stuck in your teeth," Nick said.

"I do?" Sara ran her tongue over her front teeth.

"Just kidding," Nick smiled.

Sara glared at him.

"Hey, would you look at the time, we should get going," Nick said as he looked down at his watch to avoid Sara's death glare.

Sara reached for her wallet as she looked over the bill that the waitress had already brought.

"I got this Sara, don't worry about it," Nick said as he grabbed the bill and headed to the front to pay the cashier before Sara could say anything.

"We beat Sara here?" Warrick asked Catherine as he entered the breakroom and saw she was the only one there.

Catherine shook her head as she sipped her coffee.  "She's around somewhere.  I think I saw her Denali out in the parking lot.  Probably been here all day."

"Doing what?" Warrick asked, sitting down across from her with his coffee.  "I thought all her cases were wrapped up?"

"Who knows.  It's Sara," Catherine shrugged.  "Now if it were Nick, that'd be a whole different story, right Nick?" Catherine smiled as she saw Nick enter the breakroom with Sara right behind him.

"Uh, right?" Nick smiled, unsure of what he was agreeing to.

"So Sara, how long you been working already?" Warrick asked.

"I just got here," Sara replied, a little confused.

"Oh.  Well your truck was out in the lot.  We thought you'd been here all day."

"Oh, well, I mean, I was here.  And then I left.  And now I'm back."

Sara couldn't think of a quick comeback, but Nick saved her.  "Sara and I were both here earlier to finish up some paperwork.  We just went out to grab some dinner," he said when he realized Sara wanted to avoid explaining the truth, knowing it would probably raise more questions.

"Yeah, that's it," Sara confirmed.  "We went out for dinner."  For some reason she was feeling paranoid that they thought something was going on between her and Nick.

"Relax, girl," Warrick said when he thought Sara looked a little edgy, like they were giving her the third degree.  "You sure you haven't been working all day?" he joked.

Sara smirked and turned to get some coffee.

"Hey guys," Kate greeted cheerfully as she entered.  "Hi Nick," she smiled.

"Hey," Nick smiled back.

Warrick and Catherine exchanged glances.  Sara, her back turned as she poured her coffee, rolled her eyes.

Suddenly Catherine's phone chirped.  She grabbed the phone from her belt and read the text message.  "It's Grissom.  Double homicide, Four Seasons.  He wants all of us there."

"I'll drive," Nick said as he turned to leave.

"Shotgun," Kate quickly called out.

"I'll drive too," Sara offered, to avoid riding with Nick and Kate.  She couldn't shake the jealous feeling she had, especially after she and Nick had spent the entire day together.


	7. Making a Move

A/N: Sorry it took so long for me to update, things have been pretty busy lately.  Although that's not really an excuse since I've already written the whole thing so all I have to do is upload the chapter.  But whatever.  This chapter's pretty long so hope that makes up for the long wait.  Enjoy!

~*~*~*~

Chapter 7 – Making a Move

Nearly a week had passed since Sara slept over at Nick's.  Sara's cases had gone well, nothing too upsetting like that double murder/rape case that they had.  But she knew the lucky streak would end soon, and sure enough, it took only six days.  That night she was on a sexual abuse case involving two young sisters.  She couldn't believe it.  Two sexual assault cases in one week.  She hoped she could make it through this one without making a scene like she had the last time.  The only good thing was that she was working with Grissom and Catherine; they didn't bother her as much as Nick usually did, constantly asking if she was okay and offering to handle all the difficult situations himself.

"Hey, Sara," a female voice interrupted Sara's thoughts.  "Jackie's got something on those prints we lifted from the bedroom mirror," Catherine informed her.

"Okay.  Let me know what she says.  I'm still trying to figure out these fibers," Sara said, nodding towards the microscope in front of her.

"Alrighty," Catherine said as she continued down the hall to the print lab.  When she got there she saw Jackie talking to Nick.

"Thanks a lot, Jackie," Nick said.  "Warrick's lifting more prints from the car right now.  I'll be back when he's done."

"I'm not going anywhere," Jackie sighed, looking a little overworked.

"Hey Cath," Nick said when he turned to leave and saw her come in.

"Hey.  How's the case coming?" she asked.

"Fine.  Two drunk knuckleheads carjacked an undercover officer on a stakeout." Nick sighed and shook his head.  He was amazed at how stupid some people could be.  "I heard you got a tough one tonight," he said, changing the subject.

"Yeah.  Sexual abuse, two sisters and their stepfather."  This time it was Catherine who sighed and shook her head in disgust.

"Sara doing okay?" Nick immediately asked.

"Yeah, so far," Catherine replied.  "You know, she's a big girl Nick." Catherine smiled.

"I know," Nick smiled back.  "I'll see you later." He headed for the door.  "Thanks again, Jackie," he called out as he left.  He ran into Kate as he continued down the hall.

"Warrick's done processing the car.  And Greg matched the blood we found on the officer and the suspect's shirt," Kate told him.

"Great," Nick said.  "Jackie matched the prints we lifted from the beer bottle, so that pretty much seals the deal," he said.

"Excellent," Kate said.  "You wanna cash in that rain check from last week and get some breakfast after?"  She realized they hadn't had a meal alone together in a while.

"Uh, I'll think about it.  Ask me again after shift," he smiled as he continued down the hall to the CSI garage to find Warrick.  He felt bad about possibly turning Kate down again, but for some reason he felt he had to make sure Sara would be okay after the tough case she was working that night.

Sara was relieved that shift was finally over.  Surprisingly, it had gone better than she had expected.  Not only did they solve the case and prove the stepfather's guilt, but Sara had made it through the night without crying or having an outburst.  She entered the empty locker room to grab her things, looking forward to having the next night off.  Although, she quickly realized, she would probably end up coming in to the lab anyway, like she did so many times on her nights off.

"Hey," a familiar voice said as Sara heard the locker room door open.

She looked up to see Nick smiling at her.  "Hi." She gave a weak smile back.

"Did your case go okay?" Nick asked as he opened the locker next to Sara's.

"Yeah."

Nick looked at Sara and could tell that she was telling the truth.  She looked a little tired, but other than that she seemed okay.  He was relieved that the case hadn't gotten to her like the one the other night had.  "You're off tonight, right?" he asked.

"Uh huh."

"Me too," Nick smiled.

Sara just looked at him, wondering where he was going with this.

"Have any plans?" he asked her.

"Not really."

"Good.  Because you do now."

"I do?" she looked at him.

"Yep.  With me," he smiled.  "I think you could use a little R and R after the tough week you've had.  Nothing too exciting, just dinner and a movie or something.  We don't even have to go out.  We just can order takeout and rent a movie if you want."

Usually, Sara would have accepted without hesitation; they had done that sort of thing several times before when they both had the night off.  But because of the feelings she thought she was starting to have, she wasn't sure if time alone with Nick was a good idea.

"Um, well actually, I thought I would come in and finish up some paperwork," she said, which wasn't a total lie.

"Sara."  Nick's tone suggested he wasn't too fond of that idea.

"I have a big court date next week.  I wanted to prep for that." This time she lied.  She had been prepping for two weeks; she was more than ready.

"C'mon Sara, you need to take a break from all of this," Nick said.  "Please?  I'll even let you pick the movie.  Anything you want."  He paused for a second.  "Well except those cheesy French movies that you like so much for some reason."

Sara couldn't help but laugh.  "Well since I had my heart set on a 'cheesy French movie' I guess I'll have to turn down your offer," she teased.

"Okay, okay, fine," he jokingly grumbled.  "As long as it doesn't have too much dialogue.  I hate reading subtitles.  You shouldn't have to read anything when you're watching a movie."

"Well then maybe you should just learn French," she smiled as she shut her locker.

Nick gave her a look.

Kate entered the locker room and smiled as soon as she saw Nick.  "Hey.  Have you made a decision about breakfast yet?" she asked Nick.

"Uh, yeah, sure, why not.  Let's go."  For some reason Nick felt a little embarrassed accepting Kate's breakfast offer with Sara standing there.

Sara silently moved past Nick and Kate to the door, not really wanting to hear about their plans.

"I'll call you," Nick said to Sara.

"Okay," Sara said as she left.

"So, where to?" Nick turned to Kate, trying not to make a big deal of his plans with Sara.

"Um, MGM? I love the omelets at Café Bijou," Kate said, wondering why Nick was going to call Sara.  She knew he was off that night.

Nick smiled when Kate mentioned the French themed restaurant, after he just had his conversation with Sara and her strange movie choices.  "Sure, omelets sound great."

As Nick ate his omelet, he tried to pay attention to the conversation he was having with Kate, but he kept thinking about Sara.  He was looking forward to seeing her that night.  They often did this kind of thing when they both had the night off so it wasn't anything new, but after Sara had spent the night at his place he'd been thinking a lot about her.  Especially since Kate had mentioned that she thought he and Sara were together.  Now that he thought about it, he realized that dating Sara wouldn't be such a bad thing.  She was extremely smart, had a sharp and sarcastic sense of humor that Nick loved, and she was, of course, beautiful.  Why hadn't he seen this before?

"Earth to Nick," Kate said.

"Huh?" Nick realized Kate was talking to him.

"You okay?  You seem a little out there this morning," Kate said.

"Oh, sorry.  Just a little tired I guess," Nick apologized.  "Were you saying something?"

"Yeah.  I was just asking if you're like me and think all those reality shows on TV are lame."

Nick laughed.  "Definitely.  I see enough real life greed and stupidity in this job, I don't wanna watch it on TV."

"Although I did sort of watch the very first 'Bachelor' show," Kate admitted.  "But then I kept thinking, 'I'm so much better than all of these girls, I would totally win if I was on the show'," she said.

Nick smiled.  'The Bachelor.'  That was kind of how he felt, having to choose between women.  He was having fun with Kate, but he also liked spending time with Sara.  Kate or Sara, Kate or Sara…

After breakfast with Kate, Nick tried to get some sleep, but ended up tossing and turning for several hours.  Eventually he gave up and dragged himself out of bed.  For some reason he was anxious about his plans with Sara.  He'd done this sort of thing with her several times before; he wasn't sure why this time was any different.  They were just two friends hanging out on their day off.  So what if Kate pointed out that he and Sara were so in tune with each other that it seemed like they were a couple?  That's why they were so good at solving cases, why the two made the best partnership out of the night shift.  So what if Sara was smart and funny and beautiful?  That's why he liked her so much, why she was one of his best friends.  Friends.  They were friends.

Instead of sitting around and stressing over it, he decided to go for a run around his neighborhood to clear his head.  His strategy proved effective, as he came back feeling a lot better.  Furthermore, the lack of sleep had set in, and after a quick shower he slumped into bed for a long nap.

They had decided (well actually Sara had decided) to rent a movie and order Thai food.  Although Nick kept his house neat and clean, he had the urge to tidy up some more.  As Nick was straightening up the magazines on the coffee table, the doorbell rang.  He went to the door and quickly looked through the peephole before opening it.

"Hi," Sara greeted him with a smile.

"Hi," he smiled back.

They both looked at each other for a second and then burst into laughter when they noticed what they were wearing.  Sara was wearing her favorite pair of faded jeans and a black baby tee.  Nick was also wearing faded jeans and a black t-shirt.

"Well I guess great minds dress alike," Nick joked as he gestured for Sara to come in.  "Did you wanna go and get the movie now and order the food when we come back?"

"Sure," she said.

"Okay.  Let me change my shirt first."

"Okay," Sara smiled.

Nick disappeared into his bedroom in search of another shirt.  A few seconds later he emerged as he was pulling a navy blue shirt over his head, allowing Sara to catch a glimpse of his well-defined abs.  _Wow, how much does he work out?_  She didn't see Nick as the kind of guy who would spend countless hours at the gym, pumping iron and obsessing over his image.  But whatever he was doing, it seemed to be working just fine.  Whenever he wore a short-sleeved shirt to work Sara never failed to notice his strong arms, with their perfectly delineated muscles, big but not too big.  She wasn't blind.  And she was a woman, after all.

"Alrighty, let's go," Nick said as he opened the front door for Sara, his bicep muscle flexing in the process and causing Sara to smile to herself as she headed out the door.

"So, do you know which French movie you're gonna torture me with tonight?" Nick asked as they pulled into the parking lot of the local video store.

Sara smiled.  "Actually, I thought I'd be nice and get something in English."

"Oh, thank God." Nick let out a sigh of relief.

"You're lucky I'm in a good mood.  But I still get to pick."

"I suppose it would be too much to ask for no chick flicks?" Nick asked hopefully as he turned off the ignition.

"Yes it would," Sara smiled as she got out of the truck.

They went in and Sara started to browse the new releases along the back wall as Nick followed her.  Fifteen minutes later she had reached the end of the alphabetized shelves of DVDs.

"I can't decide," she sighed.

"I have one in mind," Nick said.

Sara just looked at him, a little afraid of what he was going to say.

"Don't worry, it's a good one," he said as he walked to the shelves with the older movies, Sara on his heels.  He found the aisle he was looking for and scanned the shelf until he found it.

"_Bonnie and Clyde_?" Sara said when she saw what he was reaching for.

"Yeah, have you seen it?"

"No."

"Well then we have to watch it, it's a classic.  Beatty and Dunaway, how can you lose?  Besides, it has everything.  Action, suspense, comedy, romance, drama."

"I don't know…"

"C'mon Sara, please?" he begged with his saddest puppy dog-eyed look.

Sara couldn't help but laugh.  "Okay, fine," she said.

Nick's mouth did a one hundred eighty degree turn as he flashed his mega-watt smile.  "You'll like it, I promise," he said.  He headed toward the checkout counter as he reached for his wallet but then suddenly stopped and turned to her.  "Hey, can we use your card? I think I have some late fees on my account."

Sara rolled her eyes.  "You know, you're gonna have to pay them eventually," she smiled as she grabbed the DVD from him and went to stand in line.

They checked out the movie and drove back to Nick's house.  They sat and watched TV as they waited for the food to be delivered.

"Hey Sar, what do you want to drink?" Nick called from the kitchen.

"Whatever you're having," she answered back from the living room, absorbed in a forensic show she was watching on Court TV.

Nick returned to the living room with two beers, handing one to Sara.  Just as he sat down on the couch next to her, the doorbell rang.  Nick let out an exasperated sighed as he put his bottle on the coffee table and got up to answer the door.  He came back with their food and sat down.

Sara tried to stifle a giggle when she noticed Nick's beer sitting on a coaster on the coffee table.

"What?" Nick gave her a look.

"I can't believe you have coasters," she said.

"So?  I like my furniture without water stains.  Who doesn't?"

Sara raised an eyebrow at him.

"Okay, can we start the movie now?" he said.

"But they didn't get the results back from the mitochondrial DNA test yet," Sara whined, referring to the TV show.

"Okay, we're starting the movie." Nick grabbed the remote from her before she could get a chance to talk him into waiting until the end of the show.

They ate their food and started the movie.  Throughout the movie, Nick stole glances at Sara to gage her reaction.  She was thoroughly engrossed in the movie and Nick could tell she was enjoying it, which made him happy.  She needed to get her mind off the stressful work week.

"So, did you like it?" Nick asked as the credits began to roll, signaling the end of the movie.

"Yeah, it was alright."  Sara lied, and she knew Nick knew it.

"C'mon, just admit it.  You loved it and I was right," Nick teased.

"Your ego need a boost that bad?" she teased back.

"Can you never admit you're wrong?" Nick shot back with a smile.

Sara scoffed and grabbed the remote, shutting off the DVD player to watch TV.

"I'll take that as a no," Nick laughed as he got up.  He gathered the empty take out containers and beer bottles and took them to the kitchen.  He returned with two cold beers and sat down on the couch.  Realizing Sara was in the bathroom, he quickly changed the channel to Animal Planet.  His favorite show, "Wild Birds of the World," was on.  When Sara returned, he handed her the other beer, which she accepted without a word.

"So is this your way of admitting I was right?  By letting me watch my favorite show?" Nick asked when Sara didn't say anything for several minutes.

"Maybe," she said, feigning anger.

Nick smiled and took a sip of his beer.  "Well then, thank you.  I'm glad you finally came to your senses and admitted you were wrong," he said as he put his bottle on the coffee table and put his arm around Sara.

"I said maybe," Sara replied, poking him in the side, causing him to flinch.  She didn't know he was ticklish.  But Nick knew Sara was, and he started to tickle her, causing her to squeal.  "Okay, okay! I admit it!  You were right!" she cried out between giggles.

"See?  Now was that so hard?" he smiled as he replaced his arm around her.

Sara smiled and rested her head on his shoulder.  "So do we still have to watch this bird thing?"

"Yes," Nick smiled.

An hour later as the show was ending, Nick unconsciously yawned.

Sara looked up at him.  "Sorry, are you tired?  I should go."

"Huh? Oh, no.  You don't have to go.  I mean, unless you want to."

Sara stared back at Nick, her mouth inches from his.  _Well, it's now or never_, she thought, as she moved closer to kiss him gently on the lips.  She was tentative at first, but when Nick didn't pull away, her emotions took over and she began to kiss him more hungrily.

Nick was caught off guard, and his first instinct was to kiss her back.  When he felt her hands move up to the back of his neck and into his hair, he still hadn't registered what was going on.  It took the sensation of her tongue in his mouth and the pressure of her body as she leaned into him to finally realize what he was doing.  He cupped her face with his hands as he gently pulled her away.

"Whoa, whoa, Sara, hold on."

Sara looked up at him.  It took her a second to realize he had just rejected her.  She quickly pulled away.  "Sorry, I just…" She didn't know what to say.

"Don't be sorry, that was one hell of a kiss," Nick smiled.

Sara blushed, but didn't look at him.  "I just thought, well this past week, we've spent a lot of time together, outside work I mean, and…" she trailed off, staring down at her hands in her lap.

"Sara--"

"Is this about Kate?" Sara quickly realized as she finally looked at him.

"What? No," Nick said, which was the truth.  He did like Kate, but it had nothing to do with why he pushed Sara away.  

Sara, however, didn't believe him.  "Look, you don't have to lie on my account.  I'm a grown woman, I can take the rejection."

Nick sighed.  "Sara, you're one of my best friends," he said, which was also the truth.  "And I'd be lying if I said I haven't been feeling anything between us these past several days."  He paused and turned to look her in the eyes.  "Sara, you're an incredible woman.  You're beautiful, you're smart, you're funny in your own cynical, quirky little way…"

Sara smiled at that, but waited for Nick to say the big "but."

"But," he continued, "I value our friendship way too much to risk what we have.  What we have is really special to me, and I don't know what I'd do if I lost that."

Sara broke their gaze and looked down at her hands again.  She didn't know how to respond.  On one hand she was flattered by what Nick had said, but she couldn't say that she wasn't just a little disappointed.  After a minute, she finally spoke.  "You're right.  I'm really sorry."

"I told you, you don't have to keep apologizing," Nick smiled.

"Sorry," she apologized again, causing them both to laugh nervously.  "Well just forget I said anything.  Or, um, did anything.  Momentary lapse.  _Rare_ momentary lapse," she smiled.

"Are you sure you're okay?  That's twice in one night that you've admitted you were wrong," he teased.

She tried to give him her infamous glare, but she didn't have the heart.

"So, friends?" he smiled, extending his arms for a hug.

"Of course," she smiled as they hugged.  "Well I better get going," she said as they broke apart after a long while.  They both got up and went to the front door.

"See you tomorrow?" Sara said as Nick held the door open for her.

"Of course," he smiled.

He watched her get in her Denali and drive off before he shut the door and went to sit down.  His mind was reeling from what had just happened.  He wasn't sure what exactly did happen, it all went so fast.  Sara's kiss had caught him off guard, so his 'best friends' speech was completely improvised.  He barely knew what he said, let alone if he actually meant it.

He replayed his speech in his mind.  Well, he did consider Sara to be one of his best friends.  And he did think that Sara was an incredible woman.  But did he mean what he said when he told her he didn't want to risk their friendship?  Or was his 'speech' just a lame copout?  Did he just punk out and miss an opportunity of a lifetime?  _No, _he quickly assured himself, _I made the right decision._

_Right?_

Sara pulled out of the driveway in a daze, unsure of what had happened seconds earlier inside Nick's house.  All she remembered was kissing Nick and then listening to his 'let's just be friends' sermon.  Had she initiated the kiss?  She had no idea what possessed her to do that.  It wasn't that she'd never thought of doing it before, it was that she didn't think she'd ever have the guts to do it.  She knew she wasn't drunk; she'd only had two beers, and that was over a span of several hours.

Did Nick admit that he'd been having feelings for her?  She wasn't really sure if that made her happy or angry.  It definitely made things more complicated.  If Nick hadn't said anything, she probably would have just put her feelings for him in the back of her mind and never thought about them again.  But he did say something, and now they were two people who had mutual feelings for each other.  And to top it all off, Nick had decided that he'd rather just be friends.  

As she drove home, she thought about what Nick had said, and by the time she arrived at her apartment complex, she decided that he was probably right.  They had such a great friendship, and if things didn't work out between them, that friendship would undoubtedly be changed, if not lost.  And Sara knew she didn't want that.  Besides, she reasoned, dating a co-worker was always complicated.  She didn't even want to think about what happened when she dated that EMT whose name she couldn't even bring herself to say, even in her mind.  And he wasn't even really a co-worker.  Imagine what damage she could cause if she dated someone she actually worked with, day in and day out?

She pulled into her assigned parking space and turned off the ignition.  A small smile crept to her lips when she remembered her amazing kiss with Nick.  What would it be like to do _that_ with someone she actually worked with (not on the job, of course), day in and day out?


	8. Wedding Rings, Strip Teases

Chapter 8 – Wedding Rings, Strip Teases

The next night, as Nick drove to his crime scene, he was hoping that Sara was working a different case.  Although they had for the most part resolved the 'issues' between them, Nick was still a little nervous about seeing her.  He arrived at the scene, a residential neighborhood, and parked his Denali.  He ducked under the yellow crime scene tape and entered the home, looking for Detective Brass.

"Hey," Nick said when he found Brass.  "Am I the first one here?"

"Nope, last.  Catherine's in the kitchen talking to the homeowner, uh, Kyra McCall," Brass answered, looking over his notes.  "Sara's upstairs with the body.  The fiancé."

_Sara.  Damn._  "Okay, thanks."  Nick reluctantly headed upstairs to the primary crime scene.  As he entered the master bedroom, he saw Sara talking to their favorite EMT, Hank.

"Nick," Hank nodded as he quickly turned to leave.

"Hank," Nick nodded back.  He walked up to Sara, who was photographing the body.  "Hey."

"Hey," she said back, continuing to take pictures.

"You okay?"  Nick asked.

"What?  Yeah.  I got over Hank a long time ago.  Ancient history."

"No, I didn't mean him.  I meant about us," Nick said.  _Us.  What 'us'?_

Sara smiled.  "Nick, I'm fine.  Don't worry about it.  Really."

"Okay.  Just making sure we were on the same page."

"Aren't we always?" Sara smiled up at him as she finished photographing.

"Oh, Nick, you're here.  Finally," Catherine said from the bedroom doorway.

Nick turned around.  "I'm ready to roll, what do you got for me?"

"Well I think this bedroom is our primary crime scene, but the bedroom downstairs looks pretty trashed, something probably went down in there too," Catherine said.

"I'm on it," Nick said, heading downstairs.

Catherine, Nick and Sara continued to work on their case the next day, and the course of their investigation led them to a small jewelry store where the couple had recently ordered their wedding bands.  Nick and Sara headed to the store to gather some information.

As they entered the store, they saw an older woman, whom they assumed was the owner, talking to a young couple seated in front of one of the display cases.

"I'll be right with you," the older woman called out to Nick and Sara.

As Nick and Sara stood and waited, another couple entered the store.  The two immediately walked over to the display case next to the one Nick was leaning on and started pointing and discussing.  Nick was trying not to eavesdrop on their conversation but he had nothing else to listen to.  Just as the woman was about to explain to her fiancé why platinum was "all the rage now," the store owner approached Nick and Sara.

"Thank you so much for waiting.  I've been so busy these past few weeks!  I guess the warm summer weather brings out the marriage bug in everyone!" the woman said cheerfully.  "So what are you two looking for today?  I just got in some beautiful platinum bands yesterday, they're all the rage now."

"Oh, we're not together," Sara said, a little to quickly.

_Why'd she have to say it like that?_ Nick wondered.  As if he were the last person on earth she'd ever want to be with.

"Oh, I'm sorry.  I just assumed.  Two young, attractive people such as yourselves," the woman kindly apologized.

Nick smiled, embarrassed.  "Actually, we're--" he started to explain, but was interrupted by the ringing of the store's telephone.

"Pardon me, I need to get that," the woman excused herself to answer the phone.

Nick and Sara smiled awkwardly at each other, both embarrassed that the owner had mistaken them for a couple.  Because of the warm weather they had taken off their black LVPD-CSI utility vests, and the woman had obviously failed to notice their ID badges and guns clipped to their belts.

"Excuse me." The woman who had just come in with her fiancé tapped Nick on the shoulder.  "Can I get your opinion on something?"

"Uh--" Nick didn't know how to respond.

"Your fiancée is a brunette, like me," the woman continued without waiting for Nick's answer.  "Don't you think a platinum band would look better on her finger than a gold band, you know, less color clashing with her hair?"

"Uh, I," Nick stammered.  Sara wasn't his fiancée, nor did he have any idea what the woman was talking about.  "I'm probably not the best one to answer that," Nick started to explain.

"Ugh, you're probably just like my fiancé," the woman interrupted him.  She turned to Sara.  "So would you rather have platinum or gold?"

"Uh, we're not engaged," Sara said.

"Oh.  Sorry," the woman apologized.  "Well if you were, which would you choose?"

"Okay, sorry about that," the storeowner returned to Nick and Sara.

"Excuse us," Nick said, relieved to free himself from the color-clashing obsessed woman.

Nick and Sara obtained the information they were looking for and headed back to the lab.  They rode in silence, Nick driving and Sara staring out of the passenger side window to avoid looking at Nick.

"Well that wasn't awkward at all," Nick joked, causing Sara to smile.

"Sorry," she said.

"For what?"

"For the 'oh, we're not together' thing," she said, mimicking the tone she had used with the storeowner.  "I didn't mean it like that."

"I know.  No worries," Nick smiled.  He knew she was just caught off guard.  They both were.

"I mean, it's not like I wouldn't want to be with you, I mean I don't, I think we should just be friends like you said, but I mean--" Sara stammered, staring at her shoes.

"Sar, no worries," Nick interjected.

"Yeah.  Okay.  Just forget it."  She turned to look out the window.

"Okay," he smiled.  He was starting to wonder if Sara was having doubts about their "friendship."  She wouldn't be the only one.  Nick was ninety-nine percent sure that they had made the right decision, but there was that one percent that he couldn't ignore.  Actually, he thought, maybe it was more like five percent.  Or maybe ten.

They arrived back at the lab, and Sara went to go find Catherine and update her on what they found out from the jewelry store.  Nick decided he needed some coffee before checking in with Greg.  As he approached the breakroom he saw Kate at the coffee machine, causing him to continuing walking down the hall.  He didn't feel like talking to her, after the little episode he just had with Sara.  He thought he heard Kate call his name, but he kept walking and pretended not to hear her.

Kate replaced the coffeepot in its holder and turned to leave, just as Nick was walking by.  She called out to him, but he apparently didn't hear her.  Lately it seemed like he was acting kind of strange.  They hadn't talked much except when they were on a case together, and he seemed less friendly and less flirty.  The last time they went out to eat alone together, it seemed like his mind was somewhere else.  She wondered if he just wasn't interested in her anymore, or he had started dating someone.  She figured it was the latter.  Still, she didn't really feel like she had the right to know what was going on with Nick's love life; it wasn't like she and Nick were officially dating or anything.  But he was giving her all the signs that suggested he wanted to move in that direction, so his recent behavior seemed a bit odd to her.

"Don't tell me you don't like my coffee," a voice interrupted Kate's thoughts.

"Huh?"

"Nobody holding a cup of my Blue Hawaiian should have a frown on their face," Greg smiled at her.

"Oh, uh, it's not that," Kate said, finally snapping out of it.

"Tough case?" Greg asked.

"Yeah, something like that," Kate replied vaguely.

"Well I'm sure you'll have it all figured out by the end of shift.  You've been doing such a great job since you got here," Greg complimented.

"Thanks," Kate blushed.

"So you do like my coffee, don't you?" Greg asked with a grin.

"Absolutely.  The best I've ever had," Kate smiled.

"Really?" Greg perked up.  "Well, you know, I have a lot of different blends at home, if you ever want to come over and try some, sometime, I mean maybe, if you want," he stammered.

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind," Kate smiled.  She had always liked Greg, ever since she first met him.  He was cute in a goofy sort of way.  A lot different than Nick, but still a nice guy.

A week had passed since the jewelry store incident, and Sara had managed to avoid further embarrassing herself in front of Nick.  This was an especially noteworthy achievement, considering she had been working with him all week.  That night was no different, as she headed to the CSI garage with him to strip down a car.

"Oh, man, this is gonna take forever!"  Nick groaned when he saw the vehicle, a full sized van.

Sara was actually excited for the challenge, but she immediately noticed something else.  "Why the hell is it so hot in here?"

"A/C in the garage is on the fritz, maintenance is working on it now," Grissom informed them as he was passing by.  "Greg just finished those blood samples we collected, not a match to the suspect," he continued.  "So this van is all we have right now, make sure you cover every inch of it, inside and out.  We don't want to miss anything."

"Great, thanks," Nick said with a tinge of sarcasm as Grissom continued on his way.

Nick and Sara looked at the daunting task before them, and then at each other.

"I call inside," Sara smiled.

"Fine," Nick sighed.  "At least let me have the front seat," he said.

"Driver's side only," Sara bargained.

"Deal."

As Nick popped the hood and went to work, Sara opened up all of the van's doors so she wouldn't suffocate as she processed.  Unfortunately, that strategy proved ineffective, as in five minutes she was sweating like a pig inside her blue coveralls.

"I can't work like this."  She let out an exasperated sigh as she climbed out of the back seat.  She unzipped her coveralls halfway and pulled her arms out, tying the sleeves around her waist to prevent them from falling down.  She unbuttoned the sheer blouse she was wearing and tossed it on a nearby table, rationalizing that she'd rather risk getting her red spaghetti strap tank top dirty than her blouse, which was fairly new.

"Now that is an excellent idea.  Why didn't I think of that?" Nick said.

"Huh?"  Sara turned around and realized Nick was smiling at her.  "That's why they pay me the big bucks," she joked.

"Well maybe they should spend less on you and more on people who can fix an air conditioner," he teased as he unzipped his coveralls.

Sara glared at him, but he didn't see her because he was busy unbuttoning his shirt, exposing his sculpted shoulders and very (very) well defined abs under his tight but not too tight tank top undershirt.

"What?  Did you find something?" Nick asked when he noticed Sara was staring.

"Um, uh, no," she quickly climbed back in the van to avoid him seeing her face, which she knew was bright red.  _Find something?_  Yeah, she found something, but it wasn't in the van.  She couldn't believe she was having these kinds of thoughts.  And he still had a shirt on.  What would she have done if she saw bare flesh?  She quickly reminded herself that Nick was and always would be nothing more than her friend.  And she was working, for heaven's sake.

Nick smiled to himself as he bent down to start examining the tires.  He didn't mean to be egotistical, but he was sure Sara was staring at him.  But he knew they were just friends and would always be just friends, so he shrugged it off.  Although, he couldn't help noticing that Sara looked pretty good in her skimpy little tank top.  She had such slender arms, and a long, graceful neck.  But that didn't really mean anything to him, one way or the other.  Just an observation.  Besides, he was working.

They continued working in silence for almost thirty minutes when they were interrupted.

"Hey Nick," Kate said when she saw his head from behind the side of the van.

"Yeah, what's up?"  He asked as he stood up.

Kate's reaction upon seeing Nick was identical to Sara's.  His sweatiness and the fact that his undershirt was extra clingy didn't help any.  _Wow.  He must work out.  A lot.  Then again, maybe he's just blessed with good genes.  Great genes._  She swallowed.  "I uh, um, Hodges told me to tell you that the wood chips you collected from the vic's clothing were Douglas Fir."

"Yeah, that's what I thought."  Nick said.  "Thanks."  He knelt down to get back to work.

"Uh, do you need any help?" Kate asked.  "A van is pretty big for one person to process alone."

"Actually--"

"Can you check with ballistics?  See if they got a hit on that shell casing we found?"  Sara asked as she popped her head up from behind the back seat, completely aware of what Kate was trying to do, weaseling her way into working with a sweaty and partially clothed Nick.  She herself admitted that Nick's presence made the task a lot easier, but she knew Kate had a thing for Nick and she would probably waste her time ogling instead of working.

"Oh, yeah.  Sure." Kate was a little bummed when she realized Sara was already working with Nick.  "Well if you guys need any help, let me know," she said hopefully.

"Thanks, I think we got it," Sara forced a smile as she went back to work.

"Oh, okay," Kate said as she left.

Sara's somewhat bitter tone wasn't lost on Nick.  "Jealous?" he teased.

"Bite me," she quipped back.

_Bite her?  Hmm…well maybe not bite…_Damn.  There he went again.

"Hot damn!  It's like a sauna in here!" Warrick said as he entered the garage.

"Really?  We hadn't noticed," Nick said with a sarcastic smirk.

"Hey maybe if we turn the heat on we can get Sara to lose the tank top," Warrick said to Nick.

"Bite me," Sara said again.

"Don't tempt me," Warrick teased.

"Uh, is there a reason you're blessing up with your presence or did you just come looking for a strip tease?" Nick asked.

"Both, if I'm lucky," Warrick looked at Sara and then quickly sidestepped to avoid the tweezers she hurled at him.  "I just talked to Bobby D, the casing you found matched another shooting from about six months ago.  Brass is looking in to it."

"Okay.  Thanks," Nick said.

"No prob.  I'll be back later Sara," he teased in a seductive tone as he headed for the door.


	9. Birthday Girl

Chapter 9 – Birthday Girl

Nick headed to the break room to wait for Grissom to hand out assignments.  He noticed Kate and Catherine seated at the table, so he went to sit down on the couch on the opposite end of the room.  Because of everything that had been going on with him and Sara over the past few weeks, he felt a little awkward around Kate and had been trying to avoid her.  She had asked him out for breakfast and dinner after shift a couple times but he had made up excuses that he was tired or he had things to do.  He did feel a little bad about that, not only because he'd led Kate to believe that he was interested in her, which he really was at the time, but also because there wasn't anything actually going on between him and Sara (Nick stretched his definition of "nothing going on" so that "more than one awkward situation laden with sexual tension" would still qualify).  Still, he realized he needed to sort out his feelings for Sara before he could even think about anyone else, which meant he was unfortunately going to have to stop spending time with Kate, at least for the time being.

Warrick walked in, greeted the ladies, poured two cups of coffee, and came to sit down next to Nick, handing him one of the cups.

"Thanks," Nick said.

"So what's up with you and Kate?" Warrick jumped right in.

"What're you talking about?"

"You.  And Kate.  It's not a hard question man."

"There is no me and Kate."

"Really."  Warrick didn't believe him.

"Look, I mean, she's great and all, and I do like her, but we work together.  And she's Catherine's niece."  Nick was reaching with his thin excuse, trying to convince not only Warrick but also himself.

"Right," Warrick said, not buying Nick's explanation.

"It's just not a good idea," Nick continued.

"Does she know you think that?"

"Uh…"

Warrick gave him a look.

"I know, I'll tell her," Nick said defensively.

"Well it better be soon because this girl's got it pretty bad for you."

"How do you know?"

"Please.  Give me some credit.  I've seen it, I know the signs," Warrick boasted.

"Oh, right."

"In fact, she's staring at you right now," Warrick said.

"Really?"  Nick asked, his back turned to where Kate was sitting.  "How do you know she's not staring at you?"

"Well of course ordinarily that would be my first assumption – well actually that wouldn't be an assumption, it'd be a fact – but trust me, she's staring at you," Warrick said as he patted Nick on the back and got up to join the ladies at the table.

Nick sighed.  He took a sip of his coffee as he attempted to stand up, but apparently couldn't handle both tasks at once and ended up spilling some coffee on his shirt.

"Great.  Just great," Nick muttered to himself.  He went over to the sink to grab a paper towel.

"Do we need to give you a bib?" Catherine teased.

Nick smirked as he started dabbing with the wet paper towel.

"You know that's not gonna come out with just water," Warrick said.

"Thank you, Martha Stewart," Nick quipped.

"I have an extra shirt in my locker if you want it," Warrick offered.

"Nah, thanks.  I'll live."

Sara walked in and started to pour herself some coffee.  "You need a bib?" she asked Nick when she noticed the stain on his shirt.

Nick rolled his eyes and went to sulk at the far end of the table away from the rest of the team.  He was waiting to see if Kate would try to stare at him again when Grissom walked in.

"Okay, hit and run," Grissom looked around to decide who to give the case to.  "Uh, Nick and Kate.  The rest of you, with me."

"Where are we going?"  Sara asked.

"For ice cream," Grissom replied dryly.

"Yay," Catherine said with mock enthusiasm.

To Nick's dismay, Kate spoke up as soon as they pulled out of the parking lot.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," he said, knowing where this was going.

"Maybe I was getting the wrong message, but I thought that you…I thought that we…" she didn't know how to put it.

Nick spared her the embarrassment.  "I'm sorry."

"Did I do something?" she asked.

"No, no, of course not.  It's me.  Well I mean actually it's us."

"So I did do something."

Nick sighed.  "Kate, don't get me wrong.  I think you're great.  And I admit that I do feel something."  _Whoa, déjà vu.  Haven't I had this conversation before?_  "It's just that I don't think it would be a good idea, since we work together."

"Why, is it like, against policy or something?"

"No.  Well it is kind of against my policy," he lied.

"Oh."

"And besides, you're Catherine's niece.  She's my friend."

"Oh," Kate repeated.

"I'm really sorry, Kate," Nick apologized.  "If the circumstances were different…"

"Hey, don't worry about it.  I understand," Kate smiled, trying to hide her disappointment.

Nick felt terrible.  He glanced at her and could tell she was taking the news harder than she led on.  But she seemed to believe him, which made him feel even worse, since his explanation was just an excuse rather than the truth.  If the whole ordeal with him and Sara wasn't going on, he probably would have pursued a relationship with Kate.  And in some ways he thought he should have anyway, specifically because of the ordeal with Sara, just to get his mind off it.  But he couldn't bring himself to do it.

Sara sat at the breakroom table, alone.  As usual, she was the first one to arrive.  She took a sip of her tea and sighed.  The past few weeks had been tough, and that was without even considering her cases.  Every time she had worked with Nick, which for some reason had been a lot more than usual, they always seemed to find themselves in an awkward situation.  The scene in the jewelry store was beyond embarrassing, and stripping down the van as well as their clothes didn't make things any better.  She didn't know how much longer the tension between them would last.  She hoped not much longer; she wasn't sure she'd be able to handle it.

She had the previous night off, and because of her situation with Nick, she astonishingly didn't come in to the lab.  Nevertheless, she didn't do anything spectacular; she spent the whole day cleaning her entire apartment.  She figured it would be nice to wake up the next day to a clean apartment; after all, it would be her birthday.

And there Sara sat, on her birthday, which was actually almost over, alone in the breakroom.  Catherine and Warrick entered a few minutes later, engaged in a semi-heated conversation about a case they had just finished working on.  They distractedly said hi to Sara and continued their conversation as they headed for the coffee machine.

"Hi Sara," a perky female voice said.

"Oh, hi Kate," Sara said.

"How was your day off?" Kate asked as she sat down next to Sara.

"Fine."

Warrick and Catherine sat down across from them, still talking about their case.  Kate and Sara watched them argue and quickly noticed that Catherine was undoubtedly winning.

Nick walked into the break room and saw Sara sitting at the table, her back turned to him.  He approached her from behind and bent down to speak into her ear, softly to make sure he didn't scare her.  "Happy birthday."

Sara couldn't help but smile when she heard his voice.  "Thank you."

"Today's your birthday?  Wow, happy birthday!" Kate said loudly enough for Catherine and Warrick to stop talking.

"Is today the 16th already?" Warrick asked, glancing at the calendar on the wall.  "Damn!  With this crazy case we totally lost track of the days!  Sorry, girl.  Happy birthday!"

"We?  Hey, speak for yourself.  Happy birthday, Sara," Catherine said as she came around the table to give her a hug.

"Thanks guys."

"So where are we going for breakfast?"  Nick asked.

"I don't know…" Sara forgot that whoever had a birthday got to pick where the team would eat after shift.

"I don't mean to rain on your parade and all, but can we go someplace with meat?  I've been jonesing for a juicy T-bone all week," Warrick said, causing Catherine to playfully slap him on the arm.

Grissom entered and immediately got down to business.  "Okay kids, time to get to work.  Busy night tonight.  Cath, Kate, 419 downtown.  Warrick, Nick, B and E."  He turned to Sara.  "And for me and the birthday girl, 425."

"What kind of suspicious circs?"  Sara asked.

"Don't know.  It's your birthday surprise.  Happy birthday."

Sara gave him a look.  Grissom had a weird sense of humor.

"See, even Grissom remembered.  That makes you look pretty bad," Catherine teased Warrick as everyone headed out to their scenes.

Shift was over and everyone was in a good mood as they gathered their things from their lockers.

"So where are we going?" Warrick asked Sara.

"Um, how about, ummm…" Sara thought.  "Von Graff's?  They have meat there, right?" she smiled at Warrick as she mentioned the restaurant that was famous for its steak and eggs breakfast.

"You're the best.  I love you girl!" Warrick said as he gave Sara a giant bear hug.

"Where's Grissom?" Catherine asked.

"And Nick?" Kate added.

"I don't know, I'll go find them and meet you guys outside," Warrick said eagerly as he bounded out of the locker room, causing the ladies to giggle.

Catherine and Kate left next, leaving Sara alone.  As she shut her locker and turned toward the door, it swung open.

"Oh good, you're still here," Nick said.  "I had to run out and get this from my truck.  I know technically your birthday was yesterday, so I guess now it's happy belated birthday," he smiled as he handed her a wrapped gift.

"Nick, you didn't have to do this," she smiled, accepting the gift.  She could tell it was a book.  "Can I open it now?"

"No, you have to wait until exactly 8:27," he teased.

She gave him a look and unwrapped her present.  "Oh my God, Nick, where did you get this?"

"That's the one you don't have, right?"

"Yeah."  She flipped through the pages.  It was a first edition of _The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes_, the fifth volume in the collection of Sherlock Holmes short stories.  Her parents had given her a first edition set for her college graduation (that was their idea of what their daughter was interested in doing – being Sherlock Holmes), but when they had bought it, it was missing the last volume.  Over the years Sara had looked everywhere for it, but could never find it.  She couldn't believe that Nick remembered.  "This must have taken forever to find."

"Actually, my brother-in-law did all the work.  He owns a rare bookstore up in Seattle.  He made a few calls and tracked this one down in London."  Nick hoped Sara didn't take the gift the wrong way.  He was her friend, and he wanted her to have the book.  Besides, a book was a total platonic friends kind of gift, the most unromantic gift short of a Dust Buster.

"Wow.  Thanks Nick, I love it." Sara gave him a hug.  Was this book supposed to mean something?  The two had always exchanged birthday presents, Sara realized, but this time it was different, giving something that was personal and had sentimental value.

"You're welcome," he smiled.  They stared at each other for a couple seconds in awkward silence when the door burst open.

"There you are!" Warrick said when he saw Nick.  "Where the hell have you been?"

"Uh, in here?"

"Well hurry up, steak and eggs are calling!"  Warrick said as he let go of the door and it swung closed.

"I guess we better go before things start to get ugly," Nick joked.

"Yeah.  Thanks again for the book," Sara said.

"Sure," he smiled.


	10. The Scenic Route

Chapter 10 – The Scenic Route

Two weeks had passed since Sara's birthday, and the luck of working only a few cases with Nick, along with copious amounts of overtime, allowed Sara to forget about any feelings she harbored for Nick.  She took the Sherlock Holmes book as merely a kind gesture by a good friend and left it at that.  She had kept busy with her cases and managed to push the jewelry store and van incidents to the back of her mind.  It was so nice to be able to focus on work again.

In fact, as she walked with Nick down the hall to the trace lab, the only thing she was thinking about was finding the scumbag who kidnapped and murdered an innocent kindergartener who was walking home from school.

When she and Nick entered the lab, they saw that Kate was already there.

"So I'm looking for bubble gum," Kate confirmed with Hodges.

"Specifically sugar free bubble gum.  Probably purple or blue," Hodges clarified.

"Okay," Kate said, unsure of what to make of the gum.  "I guess I'll take another look and see what I can find."

"Need any help?" Nick asked.

"No, I got it," Kate said as she quickly left, barely glancing at Nick.

Sara was surprised.  She expected Kate to jump at the chance to spend time with Nick.  She shrugged it off and got back to the task at hand. "Did you ID the stuff from the lunchbox?"

"Yeah, a mixture of some kind of glue, sand, and green wax," Hodges answered.

"What kind of glue?" Nick asked.

"Don't know, still working on it."

"What about the sand?" Nick asked.

"Don't know, still working on it."

"And the wax? Or don't you know that either?" Sara said with a smug smile.

"I'll page you," Hodges smirked.

"You do that," Sara shot back.

Nick and Sara left Hodges and his attitude and ran into Grissom.  "Brass is trying to track down the ex-husband, but for now I want you two to check back at the house.  Comb through the boy's bedroom, see if we overlooked something," Grissom said as he continued on his way.

"You got it," Nick said.

Nick and Sara arrived at the house and went to work in the victim's bedroom.  Nick was rummaging through a toy box and Sara was in the walk-in closet.

"Hey Nick, check this out," Sara called out.  She clicked off her flashlight and tossed it onto the carpet as she pulled an old box from the top shelf.  As she attempted to step down off the stepladder she was on, she lost her footing, dropped the box, and fell right into Nick's arms.

"You alright?" Nick asked as he helped her up.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied, more embarrassed that she had fallen than that she was in Nick's arms.  

As she stood up she realized Nick was still holding on to her waist.  She waited for him to let go, but Nick didn't move.  And unlike the first time at Nick's house when Sara was the one to make the move, this time she and Nick both slowly leaned into one another in anticipation.  When there lips were millimeters apart, they heard someone calling them.

"Nick?  Sara?  You guys here?"

"Uh, yeah Brass, in here," Nick called out, his voice a little husky.  He quickly let go of Sara.

"Good news.  We got the guy." Brass sounded triumphant as he entered the bedroom and found the two CSI's in the closet.

"Where?" Sara asked.

"You wouldn't believe me if I don't you," he answered.  "Let's go."

Nick and Sara followed Brass, driving in total silence the entire way.  Sara couldn't believe what just happened.  She was more mad at herself than anything else.  After she was doing just fine and had totally forgotten about Nick, something like this had to happen.  She was mentally kicking herself for putting herself in that situation and not pulling away.  It didn't even matter to her that nothing actually 'happened,' because she knew that if Brass hadn't interrupted, something would have, and that was all that mattered.

Nick drove, staring straight ahead, trying to pay attention to the road but instead thinking about what almost happened in that closet.  The tension between him and Sara had subsided over the past few weeks, but Nick still thought about their 'situation' from time to time.  And because of that, the ninety-nine percent assurance he felt about his decision to remain just friends was drastically falling.  He figured it was down to about sixty or sixty-five now, which made him think.  Something told him that if he still had these feelings after so many weeks, it might be a bad idea to brush them off like they were nothing.

But ignore them he did, at least for another week.  He made a conscious effort to avoid Sara as much as possible, telling himself that he just needed a little more time to sort out his feelings.  He talked with her only when they were working together, and even then only when absolutely necessary; he used Catherine or Warrick to relay messages and he called or text-messaged her to avoid seeing her.

As Nick sat he stared at Sara, who was leaning against the wall at the opposite end of the room.  The team, minus Grissom, was waiting around in a coffee shop, the scene of the case they had all been working on non-stop for the past three days.  Grissom had called a powwow and told them to meet him there, and of course he was the last one to arrive.

Catherine, who had been talking to Sara, came over to sit next to Nick.  "Did you do something to piss Sara off?" she asked bluntly.

"No."  He knew 'pissed off' wasn't exactly the right term.  "Why?"

"Both of you have been acting weird all week," Catherine said.  "Whenever you have to tell her something, you make me do it.  You guys call or text each other when you're in the next room.  What the hell is going on?"

Nick didn't realize until Catherine had mentioned it that Sara always used her cell to get in touch with him too.  "I don't know, maybe it's that time of month," Nick said bitterly, not wanting to have this conversation.  He was exhausted from the whole thing with Sara and the tough case they were working.

Catherine scoffed and gave up, going to sit with Warrick and Kate.

"Alright, let's get this show on the road," Grissom announced as he walked in, flipping through a bunch of cards in his hand.

"Aw man, do we have to?" Warrick whined when he realized what they were going to do.

"Yes.  And just for that, you get to be Mrs. Liebmann," Grissom smiled, handing him a nametag with 'Nora Liebmann' written on it.

"Gee, thanks," Warrick said as he peeled the backing and slapped the sticker on his chest, symbolizing that he was Mrs. Nora Liebmann, the 83-year old garden enthusiast and grandmother of seven, and coincidentally the only person in the coffee shop who did absolutely nothing during the course of events that took place.

"I call Jackson," Nick called out, wanting the juiciest part.

"Fine," Grissom said, handing him the nametag.  "Which one of you ladies wants to be Sherri Gertz?"

Sara silently prayed that Kate would volunteer, considering their theory of Sherri Gertz's interactions with Rudy Jackson.  When Kate didn't say anything, Sara panicked, as she knew what was going to happen.

"Sara," Grissom decided for the ladies.  He handed her the nametag, but it felt like he was handing her a death sentence.

"That leaves the four men," he continued.  "Cath, you're Bill Fischer, Kate, Gordon Lee, and I'll be the two business partners, Joe Cruz and Craig Stile."  He finished handing out the nametags.  "Okay, Sherri and Gordon, behind the counter," he instructed Sara and Kate.  "Rudy Jackson, at the door," he said to Nick, who went to stand at the front entrance.

"So Bill Fischer is at the counter, placing his order," Catherine said as she got in place.

"Mrs. Liebmann is seated in the far corner, and Cruz and Stile are seated here," Grissom said as he sat down at the table closest to the front counter.

"Okay, so Cruz and Stile start arguing, so I go and try to calm them down," Sara said as she walked from behind the counter to where Grissom was sitting.

"You're back is towards the door; you don't see Jackson come in," Grissom reminded Sara.

"Oh, right." Sara repositioned herself with her back to the door.

"So I come in and see Sherri," Nick said as he approached Sara.  "And grab her from behind," he continued as he wrapped his left arm around Sara's waist.

Sara let out a small gasp as she felt Nick's arm around her waist, pinning her arms at her sides.  She didn't expect him to actually grab her.  She swallowed hard as she felt the warmth of his breath on her neck.  Her legs were starting to get wobbly, causing her to lean back onto Nick's muscled chest for support.

Nick could feel his heart beat quicken as Sara leaned into him.  Her hair smelled good.  His arm around her waist felt good.  Her back on his chest felt good.  Great.  Right.  Perfect.  He hoped he wouldn't get too caught up in the moment, or else Sara would soon be 'feeling' how he really felt about her.  _Damn.  Too late._

Nick panicked when he realized what was happening.  He was sure Sara knew.  He suddenly felt her body tense, confirming his suspicion.  The only thing he cared about was what she was thinking.  Was she upset?  Did she think it meant anything?

Sara's breath hitched when she realized how much Nick was enjoying the situation they were in.  A million thoughts started racing through her head, none of them related to the events of the crime that the team was currently acting out.  Was his reaction specifically because it was her, or was that just the kind of guy Nick was?  Would Kate have caused the same reaction?  Is that how he really felt about her?  What should she do about it?  Should she pretend that she didn't feel it?  Was she making a big fuss over nothing?

Nick and Sara were both so wrapped up in their thoughts that they stopped paying attention to the action around them.

"Nick."  Catherine pulled at the arm he had wrapped around Sara when he didn't let go.  "You still with us?" Catherine gave him a puzzled look.

  
"Uh, yeah.  Sorry."  He snapped out of his daydream and let go.

Catherine gave him another look and continued.  "And so Mr. Fischer tries to wrestle the gun away from Jackson," she repeated as she stepped between Nick and Sara.

Nick panicked again as he and Sara parted, but he realized he was wearing jeans.  Jeans were pretty thick and stiff.  Plus, the pair he had on was fairly new, not very broken in, still nice and tight.  Hopefully tight enough to keep in his reaction to Sara.  Besides, nobody should be looking there anyway.  Except for Sara, maybe.

Sara turned around to watch the rest of the re-enactment, but kept her eyes above Nick's waist, not daring to look down any further.  She neither wanted a visual confirmation nor did she want to let Nick find out she knew.

Nick glanced at Sara as they continued to play out the scene.  He noticed she was looking at him, but not really looking _at_ him.  She knew.  She definitely knew.

Two hours later when the team had finally finished, they all headed back to the lab to wrap up the case.

"Sara," Nick called out to her when he saw her walking ahead of him, down the hall to the locker room.

Sara pretended not to hear him and picked up her pace as she rounded the corner.

"Sara, wait up."  He practically jogged down the hall to catch up with her.  "Sara," he repeated as he reached for her arm.

"What," she said flatly as she stopped.

"Can we talk?"

She sighed as she compliantly followed him into the room they had just stopped in front of, an empty conference room.  She shut the door and leaned against it as she watched Nick pace in front of her.

"About what happened back at the coffee shop," he started.

"Look, you don't have to apologize," she interjected with a slight edge to her voice.

"I know, but I--"

"Just forget about it, okay?" she turned and reached for the doorknob, but as she opened the door Nick reached across her to slam it shut, trapping her between him and the door.

"Just hear me out.  Please."  He begged with his eyes.

Sara crossed her arms and cocked her head with a glare, waiting for him to continue.

Nick pulled his arm back from the door but stood his ground, standing only inches from her.  Sara was thankful that there were no windows in the room, unlike the rest of the glass-walled lab.

Nick looked into Sara's eyes as he prepared to tell her the feelings that he had unsuccessfully tried to suppress for the past two months.  "I'm sorry I lied to you.  I'm sorry I told you that I think we should just be friends.  Because I don't."  

He paused and half expected Sara to say something, but she kept quiet so he continued.  "These past several weeks have been hell for me.  I kept trying to tell myself that I made the right decision.  That things are best the way they are.  That it's not worth the risk.  But something in my gut told me that that was all wrong.  And being the skilled CSI that I am, I couldn't ignore my gut," he joked to ease the tension, getting a small smile out of Sara.

"All I'm asking for is a chance.  Please.  I'd be forever kicking myself if I sat back and did nothing when I knew the possibility for something so amazing was out there.  And I know it's there.  And I know you know it's there.  I know you feel it too, and that's all the more reason why we have to take this chance."

Sara didn't know what to say.  Nick had just poured his soul out to her and she couldn't think of a thing to say.  It was too much for her to process at once.  "I can't," was all she could manage.  She couldn't stand to look him in the eyes any longer and turned away, but Nick reached for her chin and pulled her back as he leaned in to kiss her.  When Sara felt his lips on hers, she couldn't help but kiss him back.  She had never experienced anything before that felt so right.

"Yes you can," Nick whispered when they finally parted.

Sara rested her forehead on Nick's and thought for a second.  She knew he was right.  It wouldn't be easy, but she knew she had to give it a chance.  "I know you're right," she looked up at him.  "There is something there that we can't ignore.  And I know we _should_ do it, and I know we _can_ do it, but--"

"But? No buts, please," Nick gently begged with a soft smile.

"But," she continued as she playfully raised an eyebrow, "what I don't know is _how_.  I mean, we're friends, right?"

"The best," he smiled.

"It's just that I've never been friends with a guy before I started dating him.  This is kind of awkward for me.  Completely uncharted territory."  Her eyes registered a hint of apprehension.

"For me too." Nick looked back at her with complete calmness.  He was scared too, but he knew everything would be okay.  Having Sara there with him was all he needed.

"So how do we make this transition?  Going from friends to, uh…" she struggled to find the appropriate word.

"Lovers?" Nick teased in a seductive tone.

"From friends to more than friends," she smirked.

"Well you know what they say, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line," he grinned.

"You call all the hell we went through over the past two months a straight line?"

"Okay, so we took the scenic route," he quipped.

"So," Sara said after an awkward silence.

"So."

"So, where do we go from here?" she smiled.

"Well, we could start with this," he said as he kissed her again, not wanting to stop but realizing they would need to come up for air at some point.

When they parted Sara looked at him with a gap-toothed grin.  "I don't think I got all that.  Could you run that by me again?"

Nick smiled.  "You're slacking, Sidle," he teased as he opened the door and walked off.

~~ The End ~~

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A/N: Well there it is!  The end!  I hope you liked it.  Cuz I had a blast writing it.  Thank you all so so so much for your reviews, they really meant a lot and I really appreciate every single one of them.  If you did like the fic, then you're in luck, because I've already started on another one that's sort of a sequel to this one.  But since I don't like doing WIPs, I'll have to finish it before I start posting.  Hopefully it won't take too long.  So stay tuned, and thanks again for reading and reviewing!  =)


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